racing

F1’s new engines are causing consternation over compression ratios

Cars, Formula 1, racing / Beth Washington / December 23, 2025

Compression ratios

At issue is the engines’ compression ratio, which compares the volume of the cylinder when the piston is at top dead center with the volume when the piston is at its closest to the crank. Under the 2014–2025 rules, this was set at 18:1, but for 2026 onward, it has been reduced to 16:1.

This is measured at ambient temperature, though, not while the engine is running. A running engine is hotter—much hotter—than one sitting at ambient, and as metals heat up, they expand. The engines have very short throws, so it doesn’t take much expansion to increase the compression ratio by reducing the distance between the piston and cylinder head at the top of its travel. The benefit could be as much as 15 hp (11 kW), which translates to a few tenths of a second per lap advantage.

Unfortunately for the other teams, the FIA stated that its rules indeed specify only that the compression ratio should be 16:1 based on static conditions and at ambient temperatures. “This procedure has remained unchanged despite the reduction in the permitted ratio for the 2026 season. It is true that thermal expansion can influence dimensions, but the current rules do not provide for measurements to be carried out at elevated temperatures,” the FIA said.

So if Mercedes and Red Bull do have a horsepower advantage, it’s one that will likely be baked into the 2026 season.

The compression ratio clarification wasn’t the only one issued by the FIA. For some time now, F1 has used ultrasonic fuel flow meters as a way to control power outputs. Under the outgoing regulations, this was capped at 100 kg/h, but with the move to fully sustainable synthetic fuels, this is changing to an energy cap of 3,000 MJ/h instead.

In the past, it had been theorized that teams could try to game the fuel flow meters—the most impressive idea I heard involved pulsing more fuel between the sensor’s sampling inputs to boost power, although I don’t believe it was ever implemented.

Don’t even think about being that clever this time, the FIA says. “Any device, system, or procedure, the purpose of which is to change the temperature of the fuel-flow meter, is forbidden,” it says, updating the regulation that previously banned “intentional heating or chilling” of the fuel flow meter.

F1’s new engines are causing consternation over compression ratios Read More »

F1 in Abu Dhabi: And that’s the championship

Cars, F1, Formula 1, racing / DJ Henderson / December 8, 2025

Going into the final race—worth 25 points for a win—Norris was on 408, Verstappen on 396, and Piastri on 392 points. A podium finish was all Norris needed to seal the championship. If Verstappen won and Norris came fourth or worse, the Dutch driver would claim his fifth championship. Piastri, for a long time the title leader, had the hardest task of all—nothing less than a win, and some misfortune for the other two, would do.

Lando Norris of McLaren during the first practice ahead of the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on December 5, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) — At times, the orange cars have made their life harder than it needed to be. Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Qualifying went Verstappen’s way, with Norris a few hundredths of a second faster than Piasrtri for second and third. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Mercedes of George Russell could have complicated things by inserting themselves between our three protagonists but came up short.

The big day

Come race day, Verstappen made an OK start, defended his position, then got his head down and drove to the checkered flag. The Yas Marina circuit, which is reportedly the most expensive race track ever created, had some corners reprofiled in 2021 to improve the racing, so the kind of “slow your rival down and back them into the chasing pack” games that Lewis Hamilton tried to play with Nico Rosberg in 2016 no longer work.

Verstappen was pursued by Piastri, who saw a chance to pass Norris on lap 1 and took it. For his part, Norris let him go, then gave his team some cause for panic by letting Leclerc’s Ferrari close to within a second before showing more speed. An early pit stop meant Norris had to do some overtaking on track. Which he did decisively, a far cry from the more timid driver we saw at times earlier this year.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 05: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on December 05, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) — With eight wins this year, Verstappen has been in amazing form. Which makes Norris’ achievement even more impressive. Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Verstappen’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, was in one of the cars he needed to pass. Promoted from the junior Racing Bulls squad after just two races this season, Tsunoda has had the typically torrid time of Red Bull’s second driver, and Abu Dhabi was to be his last race for the team after scoring less than a tenth as many points as Verstappen. Tsunoda tried to hold up Norris and ran him to the far edge of the track but gained a five-second penalty for swerving in the process.

F1 in Abu Dhabi: And that’s the championship Read More »

Twin suction turbines and 3-Gs in slow corners? Meet the DRG-Lola.

Cars, Formula E, Lola Cars, Lucas di Grassi, racing / DJ Henderson / November 19, 2025

One advantage of the suction fans is how efficient they are, requiring five times less energy per unit of downforce generated than a conventional rear wing (which creates drag and therefore requires energy to counter). The covered wheels should also help minimize spray during wet races.

The drag coefficient is around 0.48. Lola Cars

“You gain so much time in the low-speed corners that you’re able to have this amazing difference in performance,” he said. How much difference? About 4.3 seconds a lap at Monaco, and with a tenth of the energy per lap as a current F1 car, di Grassi and Lola reckon. Qualifying performance could be even greater, as cars could run with a minimum battery pack for the occasion, making a dent in what should be a 1,100 kg curb weight.

Just don’t expect to see a DRG-Lola race series just yet. For one thing, Formula E has the exclusive rights to the FIA’s single-seat electric championship, and with the Gen4 car due to arrive at the end of 2026, that series won’t be looking for a new car for another few years. But the idea is to inspire race car designers and series organizers, di Grassi said. “This is not a technical challenge anymore; we can do this,” he said.

“This project should serve as an inspiration for the future generations of electric racing cars. The question of whether such cars can be faster than Formula 1 has been answered with data and simulation. My plan is to build this car in the next two years,” he said.

For Lola, the project serves as notice that the marque, which was once well-represented across the motorsports world selling customer cars to numerous series, wants to reclaim those days. “At Lola, we are always looking for new ways to drive innovation through motorsport, and supporting Lucas with this design through utilizing our in-house expertise and state-of-the-art R&D facilities was a perfect project for this. The result is a car which pushes the boundaries of what is possible in electric racing through maximizing technological solutions which are already available,” said Lola Cars technical director Peter McCool.

Twin suction turbines and 3-Gs in slow corners? Meet the DRG-Lola. Read More »

3 years, 4 championships, but 0 Le Mans wins: Assessing the Porsche 963

Cars, Porsche 963, racing / DJ Henderson / October 17, 2025

Riding high in IMSA but pulling out of WEC paints a complicated picture for the factory team.

Porsche didn’t win this year’s Petit Le Mans, but the #6 Porsche Penske 963 won championships for the team, the manufacturer, and the drivers. Credit: Hoch Zwei/Porsche

The car world has long had a thing about numbers. Engine outputs. Top speeds. Zero-to-60 times. Displacement. But the numbers go beyond bench racing specs. Some cars have numbers for names, and few more memorably than Porsche. Its most famous model shares its appellation with the emergency services here in North America; although the car should accurately be “nine-11,” you call it “nine-one-one.”

Some numbers are less well-known, but perhaps more special to Porsche’s fans, especially those who like racing. 908. 917. 956. 962. 919. But how about 963?

That’s Porsche’s current sports prototype, a 670-hp (500 kW) hybrid that for the last three years has battled against rivals in what is starting to look like, if not a golden era for endurance racing, then at least a very purple patch. And the 963 has done well, racing here in IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and around the globe in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

In just three years since its competition debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2023, it has won 15 of the 49 races it has entered—most recently the WEC Lone Star Le Mans in Texas last month—and earned series championships in WEC (2023, 2024) and IMSA (2024, 2025), sealing the last of those this past weekend at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, a 10-hour race that caps IMSA’s season.

A porsche 963 on track, seen from above — 49 races, 15 wins. But not Le Mans… Credit: Hoch Zwei/Porsche

But the IMSA championships—for the drivers, the teams, and the Michelin Endurance cup, as well as the manufacturers’ title in GTP—came just days after Porsche announced that its factory team would not enter WEC’s Hypercar category next year, halving the OEM’s prototype race program. And despite all those race wins, victory has eluded the 963 at Le Mans, which has seen a three-year shut-out by Ferrari’s 499P.

Missing the big win?

Porsche pulling out of WEC doesn’t rule out a 963 win at Le Mans next year, as the championship-winning 963 has gotten an invite to the race, and there is still a privateer 963 in the series. But the failure to win the big race has had me wondering whether that keeps the 963 from joining the pantheon of Porsche’s greatest racing cars and whether it needs a Le Mans win to cement its reputation. So I asked Urs Kuratle, director of factory motorsport LMDh at Porsche.

“Le Mans is one of the biggest car races in the world, independent from Porsche and the brands and the names and everything. So not winning this one is a—“bitter pill” is the wrong term, but obviously we would have loved to win this race. But we did not with the 963. We did with previous projects in LMP1h, but not with the 963,” Kuratle told me.

“But still, the 963 program is… a highly successful program because you named it—in the last year, we did not win one win in the championship, we won all of them. Because there’s several—the drivers’, manufacturers’, endurance, all these things—there’s many, many, many championships that the car won and also races. So the answer, basically, is it is a successful program. Not winning Le Mans with Porsche and Penske as well… I’m looking for the right term… it’s a pity,” Kuratle told me.

The #7 Porsche Penske won the Michelin Endurance Cup this year. Credit: Hoch Zwei/Porsche

Was LMDh the right move?

During the heady days of LMP1h, a complicated rulebook sought to create an equivalence of technology between wildly disparate approaches to hybrid race cars that included diesels, mechanical flywheels, and supercapacitors, as well as the more usual gasoline engines and lithium-ion batteries. The cars were technological marvels; unfettered, Porsche’s 919 was almost as fast as an F1 car—and almost as expensive.

These days, costs are more firmly under control, and equivalence of technology has given way to balance of performance to level the playing field. It’s a controversial topic. IMSA and the ACO, which writes the WEC and Le Mans rules, have different approaches to BoP, and the latter has had a perhaps more complicated—or more political—job as it combines cars built to two different rulebooks.

Some, like Ferrari, Peugeot, Toyota, and Aston Martin, build their entire car themselves to the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) rules, which were written by the organizers of Le Mans and WEC. Others, like Porsche, Acura, Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, and Lamborghini, chose the Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) rules, written in the US by IMSA. LMDh cars have to start off with one of four approved chassis or spines and must also use the same Bosch hybrid motor and electronics, the same Xtrac transmission, and the same WAE battery, with the rest being provided by the OEM.

Even before the introduction of LMH and LMDh, I wondered whether the LMDh cars would really be given a fair shake at the most important endurance race of the year, considering the organizers of that race wrote an alternative set of technical regulations. In 2025, a Porsche nearly did win, so I’m not sure there is any inherent bias or “not invented here” syndrome, but I asked Kuratle if, in hindsight, Porsche might have gone the “do it all yourself’ route of LMH, as Ferrari did.

“If you would have the chance starting on a white piece of paper again, knowing what you know now, you obviously would do many things different. That, I believe, is the nature of a competitive environment we are in,” he told me.

“We have many things not under our control, which is not a criticism on Bosch or all the standard components, manufacturer, suppliers,” Kuratle said. “It’s not a criticism at all, but it’s just the fact that, if there are certain things we would like to change for the 963, for example, the suppliers, they cannot do it because they have to do the same thing for the others as well, and they may not agree to this.”

“They are complicated cars, yes, this is true. But it’s not by the performance numbers; the LMP1 hybrid systems were way more efficient but also [more] performant than the system here. But the [spec components are] the way [they are] for good reasons, and that makes it more complicated,” he said.

A porsche 963 in the pit lane at road atlanta — North America is a very important market for Porsche, so we may see the 963 race here for the next few years. Credit: Hoch Zwei/Porsche

What’s next?

While the factory 963s will race in WEC no more after contesting the final round of the series in Bahrain in a few weeks, a continued IMSA effort for 2026 is assured, and there are several 963s in the hands of privateer teams. Meanwhile, discussions are ongoing between IMSA, the ACO, and manufacturers on a unified technical rulebook, probably for 2030.

Porsche is known to be a part of those discussions—the head of Porsche Motorsport spoke to The Race in September about them—but Kuratle wasn’t prepared to discuss the next Porsche racing prototype.

“A brand like Porsche is always thinking about the next project they may do. Obviously, we cannot talk about whatever we don’t know yet,” Kuratle said. But it should probably have something that can feed back into the cars that Porsche sells.

“If you look at the new Porsche turbo models, the concept is slightly different, but that comes very, very close to what the LMP1 hybrid system and concept was. So there’s all these things to go back into the road car side, so the experience is crucial,” he said.

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica’s automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

3 years, 4 championships, but 0 Le Mans wins: Assessing the Porsche 963 Read More »

Behind the scenes with the most beautiful car in racing: The Ferrari 499P

Cars, Ferrari 499P, racing / Mike M. / September 30, 2025

Form doesn’t always quite follow function in racing. LMP1 died because it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to compete, so the Hypercar rules are designed to keep costs relatively sane. Once your car is designed, it gets homologated, and from then on, hardware changes are mostly limited to things that improve reliability but don’t affect lap times.

Ferrari made a few small changes between the 2023 and 2024 seasons. “After Le Mans 24, now the rest of the car is exactly the same, but we involve many, many parts of the car where we can make a difference because the car is homolgated… But we work at a lot in terms of engine control, for example, in terms of setup, because we discover a lot of new [things] in our car,” Coletta told me, then pointed to his competitors’ hardware changes as evidence that Ferrari got it right from the start.

Does the P stand for pretty?

The rules also hold back the worst impulses of the aerodynamicists. The ratio of lift to drag must be 4:1, with limits on absolute values. And that has freed up the stylists to create a visual link between their brand’s sports prototype and the cars they make for road use.

A Ferrari 499P seen from behind, on track at COTA — The rear wing looks like it came from a superhero cartoon. (This is a compliment.) Credit: Ferrari

I’m not sure anyone has capitalized on that styling freedom better than Ferrari. Other Hypercars have a bad angle or two—even the Aston Martin Valkyrie looks a little strange head- or tail-on. Not the 499P, which dazzles, whether it’s painted Ferrari red or AF Corsa yellow. At the front, the nose calls out current road cars like the hybrid SF90 or 296. The rear is pure drama, with three vertical wing elements framing a thin strip of brake light that runs the width of the car. Behind that? Curves up top, shadowy venturis underneath.

It looks best when you see it on track and moving. As it does, it shows you different aspects of its shape, revealing curves you hadn’t quite noticed before. Later, stationary in the garage with the bodywork off for servicing, the complex jumble of electronics and machinery looks like a steampunk nightmare. To me, at least—to the mechanics and engineers in red fire suits, it’s just another day at work, with almost as many team members capturing content with cameras and sound recorders.

Behind the scenes with the most beautiful car in racing: The Ferrari 499P Read More »

Ford decides to run its Le Mans program in-house, racing in 2027

Cars, Ford, LMDh, racing, World Endurance Championship / DJ Henderson / September 25, 2025

Formula 1 might be riding high these days on a wave of interest not seen since the 1960s, but the Drive to Survive effect has been felt elsewhere in the world of motorsport. Endurance racing like the 24 Hours of Le Mans or the Rolex 24 at Daytona has seen record crowds over the last few years, and a large part of that is down to the sports prototype class, exemplified by cars from the likes of Ferrari and Porsche. And soon, we can add Ford to the list.

Currently, eight different manufacturers are competing against each other in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class: Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche, and Toyota. More are on the way—Genesis arrives next year, and at the beginning of the year, Ford announced that it, too, was joining the fray, in 2027. Today, the Blue Oval revealed some more details about the project.

What’s a hypercar?

Compared to the road car-derived machines that race in the GT3 category, the vehicles that contest for overall victory in the Hypercar class are purpose-built prototypes, just for racing. Because endurance racing often has to be needlessly complicated for the sake of being complicated, the Hypercar class is actually made up of a mix of vehicles designed to two different technical rule sets that are performance balanced to create a level playing field.

You can find a lengthy explanation of the differences between the two sets of technical regulations (called LMH and LMDh) in our previous coverage, but briefly, LMH cars are designed entirely by a manufacturer and can but don’t have to be hybrids—like the V12-only Aston Martin Valkyrie.

LMDh cars, by contrast, must use a carbon-fiber spine from one of four approved race car makers, and all must use the same spec transmission, hybrid battery, and electric motor, with the car companies designing their own bodywork and internal combustion engine. LMH has more technical freedom—you can mount that electric motor to the front axle, for example—but it’s also a more expensive way to go.

Ford decides to run its Le Mans program in-house, racing in 2027 Read More »

F1 in Canada: Well, that crash was bound to happen

Canadian Grand Prix, Cars, F1, racing / DJ Henderson / June 16, 2025

Russell led from the start and kept Verstappen in check throughout the race until the thing McLaren has surely been dreading all year happened. Thanks to pit strategy, Norris had moved up the running order and was in fifth place, trying to pass Piastri for fourth. After thinking better of it at the hairpin at the far end of the circuit, Norris thought he saw an opportunity going into turn 1. Instead, he misjudged things, and the gap disappeared. His front wing met Piastri’s rear tire, his car’s left side met the concrete wall, and his day was done.

With two such closely matched drivers in equal machinery, a collision on track was bound to occur. As McLaren teammate collisions go, this one lacked the near-hatred of Prost versus Senna and didn’t cost it a win in the process. Now that it’s out of the way, hopefully the kids won’t do it again.

Norris’ crash brought out a safety car, which remained in effect for the final few laps of the race. So little happened during the race that the highlight reel that plays in the green room post-race was over almost before it started.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JUNE 15: Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren walks away after a crash during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. — Lando Norris walks back to the garage after wrecking just past the start-finish line. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images

It’s all getting a bit aggro

The off-track action has been far more vicious, with two big stories dominating the buildup to the Grand Prix. The first was Verstappen’s penalty points: Accumulate 12 points in 12 months, and the result is a one-race ban. Verstappen is currently on 11 points following his collision with Russell in Spain, so any slip-up that earns him a penalty point will send Red Bull scrambling to find enough drivers to fill all four of its cars (two Red Bulls, two RBs), should the reigning world champion get benched.

F1 in Canada: Well, that crash was bound to happen Read More »

Fair or fixed? Why Le Mans is all about “balance of performance” now.

24 hours of le mans, Cars, racing, World Endurance Championship / Beth Washington / June 12, 2025

Last year’s data plus plenty of simulation are meant to create a level playing field.

LE MANS, FRANCE – JUNE 10: The #35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424 of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, and Charles Milesi sits among the 2025 Le Mans entry for a group picture on the main straight at the Circuit de la Sarthe on June 10, 2025 in Le Mans, France. Credit: Ker Robertson/Getty Images

This coming weekend will see the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans take place in France. In total, 62 cars will compete, split into three different classes. At the front of the field are the very fastest hypercars—wickedly fast prototypes that are also all hybrids, with the exception of the V12 Aston Martin Valkyries. In the middle are the pro-am LMP2s, followed by 24 GT3 cars—modified versions of performance cars that include everything from Ford Mustangs to McLaren 720s. It is racing nirvana. But with so many different makes and models of cars in the Hypercar class, some two-wheel drive, others with all-wheel drive, how do they ensure it’s a fair race?

Get ready for some acronyms

Sports car racing can be (needlessly) complicated at times. Take the Hypercar class at Le Mans. The 21 cars that will contest it are actually built to two separate rulebooks.

One, called LMH (for Le Mans Hypercar), was written by the organizers of Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship. These prototypes can be hybrids, with the electric motor on the front axle: Ferrari, Peugeot, and Toyota have all taken this route. But they don’t have to be; the Aston Martin Valkyrie already had to lose a lot of power to meet the rules, so it just relies on its big V12 to do all the work. Most of the cars are purpose-built for the race, but Aston Martin went the other route and converted a road car for racing.

The other is called LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) and hails from the US, in the rulebook written for the International Motor Sports Association’s GTP category. As the name suggests, these cars must be hybrids, and all must use the same specified motor, battery, and gearbox. LMDh cars also all need to start off using one of four approved carbon-fiber chassis (or spines), onto which automakers can style their own bodies and add their own engines. Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche all have LMDh cars entered in this year’s Le Mans.

Convergence

In a parallel universe, the result would be two competing series, neither with many cars on the grid. But the people at IMSA get on pretty well with the organizers of Le Mans (the Automobile Club de l’Ouest or ACO) and the World Endurance Championship (the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or FIA), and they decided to create a way to allow everyone to play together in the same sandbox.

“2021 [was] the first year with LMH, and at that time, the only big manufacturer involved was Toyota; Glickenhaus was there at the time, but there were not many manufacturers, let’s say, interested in that kind of category,” said Thierry Bouvet, competition director at the ACO.

“So together with IMSA, while the world was [isolating] during the pandemic, we basically wrote a set of technical regulations, LMDh which was, on paper, a little bit of a different car [with] more focus on avoiding cost escalation. After a couple of years of writing those regulations, we had an interesting process of convergence, we call it, to be able to have the LMH and LMDh racing together,” he said.

It’s not the first time that different cars have competed against each other at Le Mans. Before Hypercar, the top category was called LMP1h (Le Mans Prototype 1 hybrids), which burned brightly for a few short years but collapsed under the weight of F1-level budgets that proved too much for both Audi and Porsche, leaving just Toyota and some privateers. LMP1h used a complicated “Equivalence of Technology,” but now the approach, first perfected with the slower GT3 cars, is called Balance of Performance, or BoP.

LE MANS, FRANCE - JUNE 10: The Penske Porsche, Ferrari AF-Corse, Toyota Gazoo Racing and Jota Cadillac sit on the front row as the 2025 Le Mans entry sits for a group picture on the main straight at the Circuit de la Sarthe on June 10, 2025 in Le Mans, France. — The race starts at 10 am ET on Saturday, June 14. Credit: Ker Robertson/Getty Images

Obviously, none of the automakers behind the LMDh teams would have entered the race if they thought only LMH cars had a chance of winning overall.

“So it went through a couple of long and very interesting—in terms of technique, technically speaking—simulation working groups, where we involved all the manufacturers from both categories, and we believe we achieved… a nice working point in the middle, which allows both cars to be competitive, through the different restrictions, through BoP and so on. Now we feel that we’ve got a really fair and equitable working point,” Bouvet said. As evidence, he pointed to the fact that last year Toyota took the World Endurance Championship for constructors, but Porsche’s drivers cemented the WEC driver’s title, with Ferrari winning Le Mans.

Imma hit you with the BoP gun

The rules limit both the amount of downforce and the amount of drag that the cars can generate from their bodywork, which have to be in the ratio of 4:1; this prevents any one manufacturer from having a massive advantage in terms of cornering grip or fuel efficiency. From there, the BoP gets more granular, setting maximum weight and power outputs (above and below 250 km/h), the maximum amount of energy allowed to be sent to the wheels between pit stops, as well as any extra time added to pit stops.

Weighing cars is easy, and timing them in pit stops is old hat, too. But the advance here is the torque sensors at each axle that feed back data to the race officials, letting them know exactly how much power each car is deploying to its wheels.

“We had to think of something which will work independently, whether it’s hybrid power or internal combustion engine power. Should we think about fuel only? That will only be concerning, obviously, the internal combustion engine and not do the job for the hybrid system. So, power at the wheel is a nice and elegant solution,” he said.

LE MANS, FRANCE - JUNE 8: The #007 Aston Martin Thor Team, Aston Martin Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble, and Ross Gunn in action during Test Day on June 8, 2025 in Le Mans, France. — The Aston Martin Valkyrie is the only road-going hypercar to be entered into the Hypercar category at Le Mans. Credit: ames Moy Photography/Getty Images

For the World Endurance Championship, BoP is calculated on a rolling average of the last three races, with some OEMs getting a little more weight or a little less power if necessary. While the 24 Hours of Le Mans counts as a round of the WEC, it’s open to other entrants as well, and BoP works a bit differently. Instead, Bouvet and his team based this year’s BoP on data from last year’s 24-hour race, plus the simulations he mentioned. This is done to prevent teams from sandbagging in the races that lead up to their most important race of the year

As the newest and least competitive car, the Valkyrie gets the biggest break, with a minimum weight of just 2,271 lbs (1,030 kg) and a maximum power of 697 hp (520 kW). The Toyota GR010—which won the race in 2021 and 2022—can also deploy 697 hp but at a minimum weight of 2,321 lbs (1,052 kg), more than any other car in the class.

No process is perfect, and there is little that racing fans like to complain about more than BoP, which some feel makes racing too artificial, or even fixed. You’re unlikely to hear complaints about it from competitors at Le Mans, though—criticizing BoP is not allowed in WEC, although both Porsche and Toyota have recently expressed their feelings about BoP within those strictures.

The first qualifying session for this weekend’s race took place earlier today, sorting out the 15 fastest Hypercars that will compete later this week to see who leads the pack to the start line on Saturday.

Fair or fixed? Why Le Mans is all about “balance of performance” now. Read More »

All-wheel drive EVs at 210 mph? Formula E’s next car gets massive upgrade.

Cars, Formula E, racing / Mike M. / June 11, 2025

The governing body for world motorsport met in Macau yesterday. Among the jobs for the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile was to sign off on various calendars for next season, which is why there’s now a clash between the F1 Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans and also between the Indy 500 and F1’s annual visit to Canada. The Formula E calendar was also announced, although with a pair of blank TBCs in the middle, I’ll hold off calling it finalized.

The US round will now take place in late January, and it’s moving venues yet again. No longer will you need to drive an hour south of Miami; instead, the northern outskirts of the city will suffice. The infield at Homestead is no more, and the sport has negotiated a race at the Hard Rock Stadium, albeit on a different layout than the one used by F1. It seems that Formula E’s recent “Evo Sessions” race between influencers, which was held at the stadium, proved convincing.

The really interesting Formula E news from Macau won’t take effect until the 2026–2027 season, and that’s the arrival of the Gen4 car.

The current machine is no slouch, not since they took some constraints off the Gen3 car this season. The addition of part-time all-wheel drive has improved what was already a very racey series, but for now, it’s only available for the final part of qualifying, the start of the race, and when using the mandatory Attack Mode that has added some interesting new strategy to the sport.

New tires, more aero, and way more power

From the start of the 2026–2027 season, all-wheel drive will finally be permanent for the single-seater EVs. It is long past time, given that virtually every high-performance EV on the road powers both its axles, and it marks the first time the FIA has approved a permanent AWD single-seater since the technology was outlawed from F1 decades ago.

All-wheel drive EVs at 210 mph? Formula E’s next car gets massive upgrade. Read More »

F1 in Monaco: No one has ever gone faster than that

Cars, F1, Formula 1, monaco, racing / Mike M. / May 27, 2025

The principality of Monaco is perhaps the least suitable place on the Formula 1 calendar to hold a Grand Prix. A pirate cove turned tax haven nestled between France and Italy at the foot of the Alps-Maritimes, it has also been home to Grand Prix racing since 1929, predating the actual Formula 1 world championship by two decades. The track is short, tight, and perhaps best described as riding a bicycle around your living room. It doesn’t even race well, for the barrier-lined streets are too narrow for the too-big, too-heavy cars of the 21st century. And yet, it’s F1’s crown jewel.

Despite the location’s many drawbacks, there’s something magical about racing in Monaco that almost defies explanation. The real magic happens on Saturday, when the drivers compete against each other to set the fastest lap. With overtaking as difficult as it is here, qualifying is everything, determining the order everyone lines up in, and more than likely, finishes.

Coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix is now filmed in vivid 4k, and it has never looked better. I’m a real fan of the static top-down camera that’s like a real-time Apple TV screensaver.

Nico Hulkenberg of Germany drives the (27) Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C45 Ferrari during the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Gran Premio di Monaco 2025 at Circuit de Monaco in Monaco on May 25, 2025. — The cars need special steering racks to be able to negotiate what’s now called the Fairmont hairpin. Credit: Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Although native-Monegasque Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc tried to temper expectations for the weekend, the Ferraris were in a good place in Monaco. With no fast corners, the team could run the car low to the ground without risking a penalty, and this year’s car is very good at low-speed corners, of which Monaco has plenty.

A 10th of a second separated comfortably being in Q2 from being relegated to the last couple of rows in the grid, and a very long Sunday. Mercedes’ new teenage protegé, Kimi Antonelli, failed to progress from Q1, spinning in the swimming pool chicane. Unlike Michael Schumacher in 2006, Antonelli didn’t do it on purpose, but he did bring out a red flag. His teammate George Russell similarly brought a halt to Q2 when he coasted a third of the way around the circuit before coming to a stop in the middle of the tunnel, requiring marshals to push him all the way down to turn 10.

F1 in Monaco: No one has ever gone faster than that Read More »

200 mph for 500 miles: How IndyCar drivers prepare for the big race

Cars, Features, Indianapolis 500, Indy 500, IndyCar, racing, simulation / Shannon Garcia / May 24, 2025

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson talk to us about the Indy 500.

#28, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global Honda prior to the NTT IndyCar Series 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 15, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Credit: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images

This coming weekend is a special one for most motorsport fans. There are Formula 1 races in Monaco and NASCAR races in Charlotte. And arguably towering over them both is the Indianapolis 500, being held this year for the 109th time. America’s oldest race is also one of its toughest: The track may have just four turns, but the cars negotiate them going three times faster than you drive on the highway, inches from the wall. For hours. At least at Le Mans, you have more than one driver per car.

This year’s race promises to be an exciting one. The track is sold out for the first time since the centenary race in 2016. A rookie driver and a team new to the series took pole position. Two very fast cars are starting at the back thanks to another conflict-of-interest scandal involving Team Penske, the second in two years for a team whose owner also owns the track and the series. And the cars are trickier to drive than they have been for many years, thanks to a new supercapacitor-based hybrid system that has added more than 100 lbs to the rear of the car, shifting the weight distribution further back.

Ahead of Sunday’s race, I spoke with a couple of IndyCar drivers and some engineers to get a better sense of how they prepare and what to expect.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 17: #28, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global Honda during qualifying for the NTT IndyCar Series 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 17, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. — This year, the cars are harder to drive thanks to a hybrid system that has altered the weight balance. Credit: Geoff MIller/Lumen via Getty Images

Concentrate

It all comes “from months of preparation,” said Marcus Ericsson, winner of the race in 2022 and one of Andretti Global’s drivers in this year’s event. “When we get here to the month of May, it’s just such a busy month. So you’ve got to be prepared mentally—and basically before you get to the month of May because if you start doing it now, it’s too late,” he told me.

The drivers spend all month at the track, with a race on the road course earlier this month. Then there’s testing on the historic oval, followed by qualifying last weekend and the race this coming Sunday. “So all those hours you put in in the winter, really, and leading up here to the month of May—it’s what pays off now,” Ericsson said. That work involved multiple sessions of physical training each week, and Ericsson says he also does weekly mental coaching sessions.

“This is a mental challenge,” Ericsson told me. “Doing those speeds with our cars, you can’t really afford to have a split second of loss of concentration because then you might be in the wall and your day is over and you might hurt yourself.”

When drivers get tired or their focus slips, that’s when mistakes happen, and a mistake at Indy often has consequences.

A racing driver stands in front of four mechanics, who are facing away from him. The mechanics have QR codes on the back of their shirts. — Ericsson is sponsored by the antihistamine Allegra and its anti-drowsy-driving campaign. Fans can scan the QR codes on the back of his pit crew’s shirts for a “gamified experience.” Credit: Andretti Global/Allegra

Simulate

Being mentally and physically prepared is part of it. It also helps if you can roll the race car off the transporter and onto the track with a setup that works rather than spending the month chasing the right combination of dampers, springs, wing angles, and so on. And these days, that means a lot of simulation testing.

The multi-axis driver in the loop simulators might look like just a very expensive video game, but these multimillion-dollar setups aren’t about having fun. “Everything that you are feeling or changing in the sim is ultimately going to reflect directly to what happens on track,” explained Kyle Kirkwood, teammate to Ericsson at Andretti Global and one of only two drivers to have won an Indycar race in 2025.

Andretti, like the other teams using Honda engines, uses the new HRC simulator in Indiana. “And yes, it’s a very expensive asset, but it’s also likely cheaper than going to the track and doing the real thing,” Kirkwood said. “And it’s a much more controlled environment than being at the track because temperature changes or track conditions or wind direction play a huge factor with our car.”

A high degree of correlation between the simulation and the track is what makes it a powerful tool. “We run through a sim, and you only get so many opportunities, especially at a place like Indianapolis, where you go from one day to the next and the temperature swings, or the wind conditions, or whatever might change drastically,” Kirkwood said. “You have to be able to sim it and be confident with the sim that you’re running to go out there and have a similar balance or a similar performance.”

Kyle Kirkwood's indycar drives past the IMS logo on one of the track walls.

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is the only driver other than Álex Palou to have won an IndyCar race in 2025. Credit: Alison Arena/Andretti Global

“So you have to make adjustments, whether it’s a spring rate, whether it’s keel ballast or just overall, maybe center of pressure, something like that,” Kirkwood said. “You have to be able to adjust to it. And that’s where the sim tool comes in play. You move the weight balance back, and you’re like, OK, now what happens with the balance? How do I tune that back in? And you run that all through the sim, and for us, it’s been mirror-perfect going to the track when we do that.”

More impressively, a lot of that work was done months ago. “I would say most of it, we got through it before the start of this season,” Kirkwood said. “Once we get into the season, we only get a select few days because every Honda team has to run on the same simulator. Of course, it’s different with the engineering sim; those are running nonstop.”

Sims are for engineers, too

An IndyCar team is more than just its drivers—”the spacer between the seat and the wheel,” according to Kirkwood—and the engineers rely heavily on sim work now that real-world testing is so highly restricted. And they use a lot more than just driver-in-the-loop (DiL).

“Digital simulation probably goes to a higher level,” explained Scott Graves, engineering manager at Andretti Global. “A lot of the models we develop work in the DiL as well as our other digital tools. We try to develop universal models, whether that’s tire models, engine models, or transmission models.”

“Once you get into to a fully digital model, then I think your optimization process starts kicking in,” Graves said. “You’re not just changing the setting and running a pretend lap with a driver holding a wheel. You’re able to run through numerous settings and optimization routines and step through a massive number of permutations on a car. Obviously, you’re looking for better lap times, but you’re also looking for fuel efficiency and a lot of other parameters that go into crossing the finish line first.”

A screenshot of a finite element analysis tool — Parts like this anti-roll bar are simulated thousands of times. Credit: Siemens/Andretti Global

As an example, Graves points to the dampers. “The shock absorber is a perfect example where that’s a highly sophisticated piece of equipment on the car and it’s very open for team development. So our cars have fully customized designs there that are optimized for how we run the car, and they may not be good on another team’s car because we’re so honed in on what we’re doing with the car,” he said.

“The more accurate a digital twin is, the more we are able to use that digital twin to predict the performance of the car,” said David Taylor, VP of industry strategy at Siemens DISW, which has partnered with Andretti for some years now. “It will never be as complete and accurate as we want it to be. So it’s a continuous pursuit, and we keep adding technology to our portfolio and acquiring companies to try to provide more and more tools to people like Scott so they can more accurately predict that performance.”

What to expect on Sunday?

Kirkwood was bullish about his chances despite starting relatively deep in the field, qualifying in 23rd place. “We’ve been phenomenal in race trim and qualifying,” he said. “We had a bit of a head-scratcher if I’m being honest—I thought we would definitely be a top-six contender, if not a front row contender, and it just didn’t pan out that way on Saturday qualifying.”

“But we rolled back out on Monday—the car was phenomenal. Once again, we feel very, very racy in traffic, which is a completely different animal than running qualifying,” Kirkwood said. “So I’m happy with it. I think our chances are good. We’re starting deep in the field, but so are a lot of other drivers. So you can expect a handful of us to move forward.”

The more nervous hybrid IndyCars with their more rearward weight bias will probably result in more cautions, according to Ericsson, who will line up sixth for the start of the race on Sunday.

“Whereas in previous years you could have a bit of a moment and it would scare you, you usually get away with it,” he said. “This year, if you have a moment, it usually ends up with you being in the fence. I think that’s why we’ve seen so many crashes this year—because a pendulum effect from the rear of the car that when you start losing it, this is very, very difficult or almost impossible to catch.”

“I think it’s going to mean that the race is going to be quite a few incidents with people making mistakes,” Ericsson said. “In practice, if your car is not behaving well, you bring it to the pit lane, right? You can do adjustments, whereas in the race, you have to just tough it out until the next pit stop and then make some small adjustments. So if you have a bad car at the start a race, it’s going to be a tough one. So I think it’s going to be a very dramatic and entertaining race.”

200 mph for 500 miles: How IndyCar drivers prepare for the big race Read More »

NASCAR, IMSA, IndyCar, F1: GM’s motorsport boss explains why it goes racing

Cars, F1, General Motors, IMSA, IndyCar, Motorsport, NASCAR, racing / 9u50fv / May 3, 2025

The late Richard Parry-Jones, who rose to CTO over at rival Ford, had a similar take: vehicle dynamics matter.

“There are people that think no one can tell the difference, you know, and I’ve always said they absolutely can tell the difference. They don’t know what it is. And the structural feel of the car going down the road, you know, people might explain, ‘It feels like a vault.’ Well, I can tell you exactly what’s going on, physically, from the parts and the tuning, and it’s an outcome that we strive for,” Morris said.

Does it need to be electrified?

The addition of electrified powertrains has certainly been one of the biggest trends in motorsport over the past decade or so. Since F1 made hybrids mandatory in 2014, we’ve also seen hybridization come to IMSA and WEC’s prototypes, and most recently, IndyCar added a supercapacitor-based system. But it hasn’t been a one-way street; this year, both the World Rally Championship and the British Touring Car Championship have abandoned the hybrid systems they adopted just a few years ago.

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, like concrete tech transfer, is much less of a thing in the early 21st century, but marketing remains a central reason for OEM involvement in the sport. I asked Morris if Cadillac would be endurance racing with the V-Series R if the LMdh ruleset didn’t require a hybrid system.

“I think it’s an interesting discussion because you know, current EVs—the development [needed] where you can really do lapping at the Nürburgring or lapping full laps and not one hot lap, then you’re done, there’s just going to have to be development, development iteration, iteration, and that’s what racing is,” Morris said.

While the mechanical specifications of the hybrid Cadillac (and its rivals) are locked down, software development is unfettered, and Morris is not the first competitor to tell me how important that development path is now. Battery cell chemistries and battery cooling are also very active research areas and will only get more important once Cadillac enters F1. At first, that will be with Ferrari engines in the back, but starting in 2029, the Cadillac team will use a powertrain designed in-house.

NASCAR, IMSA, IndyCar, F1: GM’s motorsport boss explains why it goes racing Read More »