Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Racecar Engineering

The 2025 Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi marked the end of multiple technical eras for the championship. There is a tendency to only look forward when new regulations are around the corner, such is the level of excitement over the unknown and the prospect of new things to discover. But it’s also worth taking a moment to reflect on what is being lost in the sea of change. Perhaps the most significant one on the engineering side was the final race for Renault as an engine supplier. The French company first entered the sport in 1977 and has powered 12 title winners, most recently the Red Bull RB9 of 2013. Pierre Gasly had the honour of racing the final 1.6-litre V6 to roll out of Renault’s Viry-Châtillon factory,…

The last time we looked in on American Baja Trophy Trucks (RE V24N9) their design had fallen into a rut, and innovation was spinning its wheels. We concluded; ‘there are many risks associated with trying something completely new, but as long as the Trophy Truck rules remain unlimited, someone will be tempted to break through and think outside the box.’ That has proven to be the case. Recall that Trophy Truck is the class where virtually anything goes regarding powertrain, chassis or electronics. Any engine can be used, any fuel system; while suspension and weight are free. A breath of fresh air in this era of spec racecar restrictions. The long-held belief in Baja Trophy Truck (TT) rule making has been that the tough Mexican desert is the great equaliser,…

The two big topics in vehicle dynamics simulation for motorsport these days are lap time simulation (LTS) and driver-in-the-loop (DiL). The challenge, though, is that the two have become somewhat disconnected. The good news is that a side effect of the ChassisSim DiL development process is that it has nailed down the connection between the two. That connection is through the stability index, and the purpose of this article is to show how we can go from LTS and translate it to DiL. To kick things off, a quick refresher on what stability index means. It is the normalised moment arm of the centre of the lateral forces to the c of g divided by the wheelbase of the car, as shown in figure 1. The idea is that if…

TotalEnergies has won the tender to supply the FIA World Rally Championship’s control fuel from 2026 to 2028. The WRC adopted 100 per cent sustainable content fuel in 2022 using a product developed by P1 Fuels but, when the German company fell into administration early in the 2025 season, TotalEnergies stepped in to ensure supply continued. In 2026 it will deploy Excellium Rally AS, a fuel made from non-food biomass. Ligier Automotive and Bosch Engineering are to launch a new hydrogen hub at Magny-Cours. It will be used to test and develop the element in both gaseous and liquid form. It will also host temporary and permanent refuelling stations, welcome new companies and become a training ecosystem for the emergent technology. Ligier has attained SRO GT2 homologation for its JS2…

‘I think there were a few elements that needed improving, but clearly not many because the MCL38 was a pretty damn good car’ Rob Marshall, chief designer at McLaren Formula 1 Team McLaren’s surpassing of Red Bull to win the 2024 Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship, its first in 26 years, was a huge achievement. Especially considering how far behind the Woking-based team was at the start of the same rules cycle. But no sooner had the papaya confetti settled on the Yas Marina pit lane floor than the question became, could McLaren defend its title in the year ahead? The answer soon became apparent, as the team maintained its momentum into 2025, winning 14 grands prix and wrapping up the World Constructors’ Championship with six rounds to…

The name Lancia has been associated with the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) since the series was first formed in 1972. Through models such as Stratos, 037 and Delta, Lancia became an iconic name in off-road racing. Now, under the umbrella of parent company Stellantis, it’s back on stage. There are, however, a few significant differences for the manufacturer’s 2026 entry. Far from the Delta Integrale and Group B 037 that made heroes of the likes of Miki Biasion and Markku Alén, the new car is based on the Ypsilon platform, the smallest car in the Lancia range, and the least likely to make it as a poster pinned to a bedroom wall. Nevertheless, this latest offering to the gravel gods carries the fabled Integrale badge. Unlike the standard road…

FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, has been re-elected for a second four-year term, despite a legal challenge aimed at the legitimacy of the election process. Ben Sulayem ultimately stood unopposed in the election after rivals were forced to bow out due to new procedures brought in by the sitting president. These new procedures led to a legal challenge brought forward by presidential candidate, Laura Villars, and backed by Tim Mayer, who also fought to stand against Ben Sulayem for the FIA’s top job. While the judge did not make a definitive ruling, it did agree to further examine the existing process and confirmed that it will do so on 16 February, 2026. ‘On 10 November, the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance heard arguments from Ms Villar’s legal team regarding the…

The final FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting of 2025, held in Uzbekistan in December, primarily focused on off-road disciplines. It clarified the homologation criteria for constructors under the upcoming World Rally Championship WRC27 regulation set, and two new entry-level categories for rallycross. The WRC27 technical regulations were approved in December 2024, but new rules for homologation mean constructors, comprising major manufacturers and tuners, must produce 10 cars within two years of the homologation date, and be able to supply 10 cars per year to customers. The homologation will be valid for 10 years and, to make it easier for a constructor to enter, a car only needs to enter half of the rallies in year one, with two cars at each event. As has been known for a while,…

Italian motorsport equipment company, OMP, has launched a new race suit, the One Art Air, which it claims to be the most breathable race suit ever made. Homologated to FIA 8856-2018 specification, the suit is designed to maintain a stable driver body temperature within the cockpit, in the most demanding of conditions. It has already been tested by drivers in Formula 1, rallying and IndyCar with encouraging results. The Air technology also features in other top-tier models in OMP’s 2026 range, the One-S Air and One Evo Air.…

It was on 2 December 2005 that the idea for GT3 racing was first revealed to the world. At the time, launching such a class seemed an odd choice; GT1 was booming with the Saleen S7-Rs, Aston Martin DBR9s, Corvette C6Rs and Maserati MC12s. There were also entries from Lamborghini through Reiter Engineering. GT2 was also doing well with strong grids, thanks to Ferrari 430 GT2s and Porsche 996 GT3 RSRs, plus Nissan 350Z and a Panoz entered by Team LNT. The future looked bright, but there was a catch. FIA GT Championship organiser, Stéphane Ratel, realised the existing GT2 class was becoming too expensive, approaching the cost threshold that would signal impending collapse. His customers still wanted to race, and so he envisaged a category that would encourage new…

There continues to be much discussion about the next generation of top-level FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cars. New technical regulations are tabled for 2027, which have the aim of increasing the number of entries capable of winning overall, at a relatively low cost. The expectation is that this goal can only be achieved with cars that are simpler and cheaper to run, more akin to current Rally2 machinery than the lightweight Rally1 beasts of today. The FIA has published details of WRC27’s technical rules, notably the development of a new standardised bodyshell. But with no draft technical regulation document publicly available, the exact spec of the next generation WRC cars feels nebulous, and distant, despite being just over a year away from introduction. Over in supplier land, the situation…

We are entering yet another period of change in the battery electric vehicle (BEV) world, as the UK government reconsiders its 2030 ban on new internal combustion engine vehicles, when major European nations are pushing for policy flexibility. Competition from new Chinese OEMs adds to the urgency needed for a review of the current situation. Until the outcomes are announced and fully understood, it is hard to estimate their effect on the UK’s fast-growing motorsport supply chain. Such reviews are vital but affect the confidence of new suppliers making significant commitments to meet the constantly evolving targets. While the development to support an electric future has been embraced by many in UK motorsport, vacillation, by governments and decision makers, on which solution to support and a reasonable timetable to do…