The first to talk about it was James Allison, technical director of Mercedes, in the usual analysis of the Star also made after the Qatar GP. The expert English engineer, recalled to the command deck of Brackley in the middle of the season, after the flop of Mike Elliott’s W14, does not stop to photograph the present, but looks to a future that could be longer than expected.
James, in a nuanced way, mentions a topic that could become very interesting in a 2026 perspective. Allison, in fact, urged on the W15 which will be a clean break with the current black arrow, looking for solutions closer to those that are popular, made it clear that the 2024 car will have a strategic role and, perhaps, a longer life…
James Allison, Technical Director of Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“It will be important to start the new season on the right foot, even more than usual, because with the new 2026 regulation upon us, we are talking about a car that will have to be designed in 2025. It is very likely that the 2025 F1 cars will have to be cousins narrower than those of 2024. And, therefore, it will be doubly important to have a competitive vehicle next year, if we want to play good championships while waiting for 2026″.
In 2025 the F1 teams will have to study the cars for the new 2026 regulation: new power units with 50% electric power and new cars with smaller dimensions, lighter and more efficient from an aerodynamic point of view. In short, a revolution that will require time and resources, both economic and human. And with the budget cap active more than ever, it will not be easy to develop a 2025 single-seater without taking too much energy away from the project that will bring F1 into the new era.
Allison threw a stone on a topic that is becoming topical: could we freeze the 2024 single-seaters in 2025 too? You may remember that the operation was conducted in the midst of the COVID era to manage the transition to ground effect vehicles. The 2021 F1s were in fact those of the previous year with few technical updates granted: at the time the smaller teams, having no income due to the stop of the 2020 season in the first six months, had even risked being blown up, and many did not they would have had the resources to finance the wing cars, so much so that the introduction of the new F1 cars had been postponed, rightly, by a year to 2022.
![Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19](https://cdn-7.motorsport.com/images/mgl/6AEQdND6/s1000/max-verstappen-red-bull-racing-1.jpg)
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
The financial strategy of the promoter Liberty Media has reversed the economic trend: the teams have reached prices that were unthinkable until recently, but they have to deal with closed budgets due to spending limits. We wouldn’t be surprised at all if the concept expressed by Allison was embraced by others in the F1 Commission, trying to push next year’s single-seaters to 2025, with very limited areas of development.
Would stopping the evolution mean putting a brake on the growth of Red Bull which seems to have opened a cycle with the undisputed dominance of Max Verstappen to allow the others to get closer, or can those who have a technical advantage keep it? We will see if the prospect of containing costs will lead to the carry over of the single-seaters or if F1 does not want to place constraints on itself, leaving the field open to research as would be right in the highest expression of world motor racing. We will find out what the reactions will be…
#singleseaters #frozen