FIA Reveal OVERHAUL for F1 Canada! (Battery 💥)

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]All right, guys. Welcome to Formula 1 News. Major changes confirmed going into the Canadian Grand Prix. The recharge limit over a single qualifying lap has been substantially reduced for this weekend's in line with what the teams agreed a couple of weeks ago, but has been relatively inconsistently deployed across the upcoming races as we shall discuss. This should make qualifying a little bit more normal than we saw at the start of the season. But Montreal is not a particularly energyrich circuit, so some teams could well benefit more than others. Which teams will they be?

[00:00:28]Vermont Twitter, your thoughts on the comments below. Hit the like button if you enjoy. Subscribe if you were new. As always, a lot of updates around the grid today. We are going to start here. We're going to come back to what the FAA said about this weekend, but we did talk yesterday about the track map and whether we are going to have four straight line zones or only three. Now, they have confirmed the FIA Formula 1 had this wrong as far as I can tell. The teams, some of them had it right, some of them had it wrong. and the FIA, we can take their word for it, I think, because their graphic is more complicated than the Formula 1 one themselves. So, I'm pretty sure this is correct. What we're looking at here are these zones which are in the blue. These are what we typically consider the DRS zones basically, but um instead these are now the straight line mode activation zones. Now, the blue bit is when it's wet, low grip conditions, and the red bit, which is slightly longer in most cases, is when it's dry. So presumably most of the weekends the red part plus the blue part you can see the red kind of slicing through the blue that is the full straight mode activation point. The notable thing is on the run down to the hairpin there is also another straight mode available there but that is only if it's not raining right if in low grip conditions whatever they define that as this will be deactivated. So there are four straight modes available but only three if it rains. It might rain on Sunday.

[00:01:53]We'll talk about that in the coming minutes. But this is also a pretty big deal for energy deployments, right? We saw it very notably in Japan when there was a straight mode on the rundown to 130R, but the straight mode closed off during and post 130R, which meant that the cars were really struggling going into that final chicane. So, this hopefully will make a difference there cuz as we talked about yesterday, while there are breaking zones on this track, the braking zones are heavy in places like the hairpin at turn 10, but there's not a crazy amount of recharge opportunities, which is why again we will be talking about the mega jewel, much to Stfano Deali's dislike. A few updates on various teams. Now, Pierre Gazley had a more challenging weekend in Miami, partly because he got sent into the barriers by Liam Lawson. I think Liam Lawson to his credit did have some sort of gearbox problem which caused that issue. But Gazi's weekend didn't end especially well. But he wasn't that fast all weekend anyway which is kind of why he was in that predicament given that so far this season apart from Miami Gazley has been much faster than Colinto. That story changed where Colinto if anything had the slight edge in Miami. Now Alpine have said that they figured out why and it wasn't to do with the new rear wing. They found a couple of issues that were causing Gazzley to lose performance. So they are expecting Gassley to be back in business at the upcoming Grand Prix. But it is interesting that Colinto therefore by consequence did rather well. Now I think Collapinto did perform well. Gazzley was underwhelming for various reasons and of course didn't finish the weekend in the way that he would have wanted anyway.

[00:03:30]But Colinto did score a nice handful of points and that should be good on paper, right? Because we know that Colinto's job is not exactly safe. Briator is, you know, could be considered a bit of a loose cannon. And while there is plenty of sponsorship money that Colipinto brings in, it is considered that his drive is not exactly secure. So this result in Miami was good, but also could be bad depending on what happens next, right? Bria Tore says, he performed in Miami at the level we expect from him every race weekends and now as says Steve Nielsen, now we want him to repeat that every time and show that level of consistency. So yeah, it's good that he showed what he's capable of and had a good weekends. But equally, these comments out of Alpine kind of sound like if you don't do it again, you're getting sacked kind of thing. Especially on a weekend where there was a feeling that there was more to come from Gazzley. If anything, the pressure on Colipinto is now higher than ever after having a good weekend. That certainly seems to be the way that Alpine are approaching it to put yet more pressure on their driver. And look, you get paid a lot of money to perform under the pressure. So, let's see how Colin gets on in a car which is moving in the right direction with the Mercedes power unit.

[00:04:43]The Red Bull powertrains car however is under the microscope of aerodynamics at the Cold War facility as Christian always described as the Cold War relic of a wind tunnel that they've been using for a long time now. Their new wind tunnel, we've been talking about this it feels like on this channel for years is finally nearly here, but not quite yet.

[00:05:03]So, I think originally it was meant to be online in 2026 with the intention that it would be useful for next year's car in 2027. But no, even though they say that it's 3 months ahead of schedule, I imagine this was a revised less time-sensitive schedule because rumor now has it. It's going to be here, but it's going to be here in early 2027.

[00:05:26]So, it should be a big deal for Red Bull for sure and for Racing Balls as well, if racing balls are still a thing. We'll talk about that in just a couple of seconds here, but that's the plan. So, for 2027, it looks like Red Bull will still be using their old facilities, which is far from optimal compared to some of the technology the other teams have. Red Bull in 2028, that's probably going to be their first car if this actually does complete on schedule that uses the brand new Winel. Now, the reason why I was talking about Racing Bulls was because there was an interesting rumor emerging today that they might be forced to sell it. This is all to do with Zack Brown and the recent developments with Alpine, the 24% stake owned by Otro Capital, including some of those like movie stars that got involved in that project as well. There's interest in Mercedes potentially buying that stake and Zack Brown has been very clear that he's not a big fan of that.

[00:06:19]And you know, neither am I, right? I do not think we should have multiple teams on the grid owned by the same entity.

[00:06:25]Yeah, it's a little different if it's Mercedes and Williams with the same engine and occasionally sending some drivers down there and all of this type of relationship. It's a little different just because they're not owned by the same team. So, or the same ownership group, so there's not quite the same level of potential competitive problems.

[00:06:42]We see it very frequently with Red Bull and Racing Bulls. Like every season there's at least one example. There's already been one this season with Lawson and Vstappen back in Miami. And I just don't think it's ideal for the sport when you have two teams owned by the same entity. Zack Brown has been adamant about this and understandably so, right?

[00:07:00]Because in a hypothetical world where Mercedes have a B team, Red Bull have a B team. Obviously Ferrari kind of have H has it's a closer relationship than some of the other relationships are. And obviously Ferrari make their own engines as to Red Bull as to Mercedes. So McLaren would be in a bit of a predicament in such a scenario. Even it's possible that McLaren could get told we're not making engines for you by Mercedes because Mercedes might not need to. They've got a good relationship with Alpine whatever if they own that team as a B team. The point is that Zack Brown and the FIA I think in general other parties are pushing back because Mercedes are like well hey if Red Bull can do it why can't we? The feeling is should we just ban this and like update the Concord agreement so that Red Bull are forced to sell that team effectively. Now the team could be worth €1.8 billion but this is the rumor that they may make adjustments that will force Red Bull to sell off their sister team and in such a scenario this is when Christian could be back in the mix. So the big developments we've talked about over the last few days her was spotted in can speaking with one of the top directors at BYD. So the Chinese automotive manufacturer huge company as it stands they want to get into Formula 1. Race did a video about this earlier today as well, saying that yeah, there's a lot of interest right there. They want to take um full ownership control of a team. They wouldn't necessarily be interested in buying a stake in Alpine and kind of having some involvement from the sidelines. They want their own team.

[00:08:29]They see the commercial potential. Of course, there's some debate on well surely BYD will want a big electrification component, which they likely would, but there is a feeling that if there's any sort of electrical piece, then they would probably still be on board. and just because of the commercial value in Formula 1 right now and presumably they have the valuation and the let's say the clout as it were in order to get the 12th spot if they wanted it. Now of course that would be a serious process however so there's also the possibility because her and BYD apparently had good talks. Her keen in the right circumstances probably he would want some level of ownership there as well. BYD are keen in the right circumstances. But this of course would be a several year project in the making.

[00:09:13]The other possibility is you buy Alpine or you buy Racing Bulls, right? It's not impossible. If Red Bull are getting forced to sell it, that could mean another team is on the market potentially able to be sold. So her is cooking. Let's say BYD are interested, but I'm sure that her will take the opportunity, which makes the most sense for him because that's what it's about at the end of the day. The teams at the back of the grids, they have upgrades on the way for Canada. Cadillac are really pushing, it seems, this weekend. They have a new front wing, a new rear wing, a new chassis, new diffuser, new rear suspension, and the front brake duct.

[00:09:49]So, look, is it going to make their car on the front row? Unlikely. But could they make a step forward? I think the battle is can Cadillac solidify themselves as firmly faster than Aston Martin. That will be one of the goals.

[00:10:02]And well, the answer from Aston Martin's side is no. We are also working hard.

[00:10:06]There's a feeling that Newi and the team are cooking up a new chassis at some point. There are rumors that Carlos Mccel say that they're set to improve by half a second. And um if the gearbox, they've been working on the gearbox.

[00:10:19]They feel like they've made some progress in various areas. They're not bringing major aerodynamic components soon. They didn't bring anything to Miami which was confusing given their start of the season, but they will have I think the rumor was Belgium a major B-spec package. So, we'll see about that. But rumor has it they've worked on the gearbox, the engine, the powertrain, and they have half a second to find if they get it right. And there were other rumors today that in fact there's quite a bit of optimism here coming out of Aston Martin. They're seeing positive things in the power unit. So, look, Cadillac's approaches, let's bring some air upgrades that hopefully make the car faster. Aston's approach is we're going to do that down the line, but for now, we need to optimize the power unit.

[00:10:59]Let's see this weekend. Is it going to be enough to get these guys consistently out of Q1? Probably not, let's be honest. But um well, this weekend will give us the answers. Ferrari, Hamilton, of course, has gone well here historically. He did mention after Miami how he was basically going to switch off the simulator and the correlation wasn't really working and he didn't feel like it was making him more confident or with greater understanding for the Grand Prix. He was basically look, I'm going to leave that stuff to the simulator drivers, the reserve drivers. I'm just gonna turn up to the weekend and see what the car's giving me, which well, we'll see if that works out for him this weekend. He does feel pretty optimistic about, I'm sure, going back to Canada as well. The Ferrari started the season so strongly, but it's not clear that this weekend is going to be great for them.

[00:11:42]They're not bringing a raft of upgrades like some of the other teams are, notably Mercedes. It is a particularly energy poor circuit as we'll discuss in a second which shouldn't probably be good for their power unit which isn't quite as efficient as what Mercedes as we understand have come up with. So Ferrari will try to prove everybody wrong. The Mercedes piece is probably the most compelling right because this is in many respects it could be the weekends where we get to see clearly whether Mercedes are going to win this title at a caner or whether they are going to be challenged. Montreal, as we've said, is a relatively unusual circuit. It is a straight into a chicane into another straight, and you do that again for the entire lap. Great track, but an unorthodox track in terms of the corner profiles. So, it's one where Mercedes have gone well in recent years anyway. So, if Mercedes dominate this weekend's, it's maybe not going to say, "Oh, it's over necessarily," but it would get pretty close, especially if their performance upgrades work, right?

[00:12:39]They're bringing a ton of upgrades this weekend. So are McLaren and others as well, but Mercedes are bringing multiple changes. Toto, as always, is glass half empty, pretty pragmatic, and says, "Well, we'll see what happens on the track." There's a rumor that it might give them two or three tents, which I'm not going to lie, isn't much. If that's all Mercedes gain from because Ferrari's upgrades, we think in Miami gave them 4/10. McLaren's upgrades gave them, we think, something similar, and they've got more to come this weekend. So if Mercedes like full package gives them 3/10 then I think very arguably you could say this championship is not over.

[00:13:13]But if they gain like 510 from these upgrades and they're on pole by 6 7/10 of a seconds and they win the race at a caner then I think you can probably say okay Russell versus Antonelli for the title is fair. But this weekend's I think from McLaren's perspective especially will kind of prove can we be a threat in the championship or are we not going to be. Now this is the big update on the energy recharge. So this is the big document that the FAA come out with. This is the track map. We looked at this earlier. This is the straight line mode down the start finish straight and all of this. And these are the figures. So here we are again talking about the mega jewel. As much as De Manardi doesn't like us to talk about it, the power and the energy limit. So, what's going on here is this is the maximum recharge per lap. Now, you might in theory think, well, if the recharge is a problem, then you should increase the amount. But actually, that counteracts what they're trying to achieve here because the super clipping, the lift and coast is happening in qualifying because that's the most efficient way to drive a lap. You super clip through a corner, you lift and coast on a qualifying lap because that saves you and recharges you a bit of energy which you can deploy at the start of the next straight. That increases overall lap time. If you reduce the amount of recharge on a particular lap, especially in qualifying down to the level that you would normally get effectively under purely just braking, then you reduce the need for lift and coast at all. You reduce the need for super clipping at all. and hopefully you make qualifying a lot more normal. The teams have agreed to this, but the implementation has been quite different.

[00:14:52]You can see that it is still in the race and the sprint 8 megajoules when you've not got overtake, 8 1/2 megajoules when you have. So if you're within a second of the car in front, you get an extra.5 of a mega to recharge on a particular lap. you're able to deploy that as in this graphic here on a more prolonged basis which is what the dotted line is in overtake mode. So it's all complicated but we have talked about this before. This however is the key change for qualifying. You guys might remember the FIA said the teams have agreed to it and we're dropping it down to seven from eight because on most circuits it was eight and they said we've agreed to take it down to seven which I think it was 8 and a half on on average it was like 8 and 1/2 like in you can see in free practice here it's still in other laps in the outlaps for example it's still 8 and a half in the main race it's eight but in qualifying it's six so you know what's going on why all the confusion usion. Why was it meant to be 8 and 1/2 and then it was 7, now it's six? You know, what are they cooking? Right? It's all a little bit confusing. And you would not be wrong.

[00:15:58]When the FIA said they were dropping it to seven, what they meant, I think, is they're dropping it by roughly one or one and a half on a circuit dependent situation. So back in Australia, there was a 7 megajoule limit, which was pretty bad, right? Because that was in a similar way to Canada, not a great track for energy recovery. China was up to 9 megajoules which um they would still have dropped it down based on the latest changes but even that wasn't terrible because it was a very energy friendly circuit with all the heavy braking zones. Japan was eight and Miami though was still eight despite the fact that they made the changes with reducing the number to make qualifying better. It was still 8 megajoules. So now this is going to be six and this is the first time we are seeing a limit of six. the the lowest we had so far was Australia back at seven. Now what's going on here is that these were the figures announced at the start of the season for the maximum recharge numbers. So Montreal was meant to be 8 megajoules originally. Vegas was meant to be 8 megajoules. Monza was going to be six, Jedha was 6 1/2. Most of the tracks were going to be nine.

[00:17:10]There was some at 8 and a half. Right?

[00:17:11]So these were the limits and they decided that in Monza you're just not going to be able to recharge any more than that and if you allowed the limit to be higher then the guys would be super clipping all over the shop. But they've realized that actually things are worse than we thought. We've got to make this we've got to lower these figures to make qualifying at least feel like qualifying typically does and also for the drivers to make sure that they are actually on the limit of adesion most of the time rather than on the limit of what the engine wants them to do. So these were the figures at the start of the season. These as the race have updated with their article as I understand are the new figures. So this is Miami at eight as we know. Canada is going to be six. Monaco may well stay the same. But what you'll see here is that these numbers are now a lot lower.

[00:17:58]Some like Hungary like Monaco they may still stay high. Italy we think in Monzer is now going down to five. Vegas we're talking about maybe six. So I don't know. I think these are still very much up for debate, let's say, as the season goes on. But the point is that Canada initially was intended to be an 8 megajoule recharge limit. That's now gone down to six, which is a huge drop to be honest. And that will have impact on what the teams come to the table with. So, who should it help? Who should it hurt? It's a challenging question to answer. These power units are complicated. Maybe Mercedes because their recharging is more efficient should lose out to some degree because they can't recharge quite as much. That might be an argument. But also under braking you'll still got to recharge efficiently as much as you can. Anyway, so you know presumably it's still going to be beneficial, maybe just not quite as beneficial. So yeah, maybe Ferrari could be optimistic about the chances that they have here. The point is the teams are in the paddic. They're getting ready to go. This is Lando Norris here checking out the new upgrades on the McLaren for this weekend, which I'm sure we'll talk about tomorrow after well qualifying is over to see how their performance ended up. These are the chances of rain as it stands.

[00:19:10]Apparently, there's about a 55% chance of rain by the race this weekend's. We also have a quick weather update from Rulo who says the following. So, sunny, 17° on Friday, clouds are 19° on Saturday, but on Sunday very cold. The temperatures drop down a lot. The official risk of rain is 40% at the race start, 30% after that. The chances of showers decreasing at race time, but still quite possible. So yeah, we could be set for an exciting weekend in store.

[00:19:41]Vermont on Twitter your thoughts in the comments below. Hit the like button if you enjoyed. Subscribe if you're new.

[00:19:46]Take care and I'll see you next