Used Assetto Corsa for a video last week, and it's fine. Use it today and it does not want to open. Anyone else having issues with Steam lately? Cos I've had to run integrity checks on a LOT of my Steam apps this week...

FIA: "Screw it, no one will dominate. Built a shitbox? We don’t care!" Liberty Media: continues to count cash with Arab Money from GTAIV playing in the background.

You could argue professional wrestlers are power units.

The more I hear about the 2026 rules, I just want to forget F1 and want a new pinnacle of motorsports. Maybe hypercars running 1.5 hour short races.

I also don't get the point of trying to make the cars enviro friendly when they are constantly adding races to the schedule. Could have 5 less races and run V12s on rocket fuel and will be the same outcome :D

Small note on the Typhoon/Eurofighter: pretty sure it's quadruple-redundant, meaning if the flight computer fails, there are still three remaining to take control.

There's that question about how Fangio would do in a modern F1 car. If Fangio couldn't drive Fangio, I think Houston has a problem.

4:26 "The hell have you done? The car’s evil. It’s f*cking undrivable!” James Hunt - Rush (2013)

Your remark about how the FIA are trying to overhaul the rules without sacrificing performance brought to mind the 1994 season. The FIA banned all the various driver aids the teams had been developing, but did nothing to slow the cars down, and without all that electronic wizardry keeping them in check, they were suddenly much harder to drive. And we all know how that turned out.

It just looks like the rear grip is gone all of the sudden. If I was a director of an F1 team, I would call an American supermodified raceteam and "can we run that in a tunnel, undercover?"

I just want the regs to be stable for more than 5 minutes

Personally the main enjoyment I get from F1 is the self-sabotaging drama from either the teams or FIA, so I'm really enjoying this trajectory xD

Peronally I think the FIA is overdoing it with the cars. It is that a potential reliabillity aspect can get quite dangerous with the active aero. If things aren't working like they are supposed to and it happens all of the sudden, you will have someone like Max or Lewis crashing while they were relying on that thing to work properly. I had no issues with the formula introduced in 2014. Yes, there were loads of reliability issues, but that is motorsports. An engine going wrong is something I am used to when I started following F1. That happened on a regular basis. And when an engine "dies", you still have control. You could savely park it somewhere. This is different with these. If the electronics mess up, you are lucky, if the drag is not reduced in general. If only one side is reduced and the other is stuck on, you will have a massive inbalance. FIA, just forget active aero, please. Just make them smaller and more raceable. Who cares if they are 4 - 6 seconds slower?

I don't like the idea of active aero. In F-1 it's not a question of: "Will a team cheat this year?" but more a question of: "Who cheated, and how bad was it?" Active aero will be something that every team will be "bending" the rules around and whatever team does it the best/worst will dominate for the entire year, get talked to in a back room meeting, and then blame it on catering or some other nonsense.

smaller, lighter cars, NO HYBRID OR ELECTRIC POWER, v10's on biofuels and the sport would GROW EVEN MORE IN POPULARITY (and save them money), biofuel makes a bigger impact globally but the manufactures will profit less with people keeping older cars/equipment running longer and not buying new this is a reminder that all the F1 cars in every session (race, practice, testing) burn less fuel than ONE transatlantic flight, its all P.R no substance

Car gets set up like the rear wing's fallen off, car drives like the rear wing's fallen off. How was anybody surprised by this? Cars have had their rear wings fall off before, sometimes it looked like the sudden loss of suspension load made the rear end bounce off the ground.

F1 should only have rules for safety imo. Other than that it should just be “make a fast car within the cost cap”

Just waiting for the 12 month delay to be announced which would certainly cause issues for Audi/Sauber.

I tried your "put finger on arm" exercise . and now I am on the intensive care . don't try this at home kids ! . with sadness, Wolverine

Interesting point to consider, and maybe do a video about, are the future regulation changes across the board. F1 is late and runs into trouble, WRC pressed the panic button and the 2026 regulations (and 2025!) are already late, WEC made last minute changes, which in turn made Toyota change their approach and left Peugeot to compete with a car set for different regulations than what they got. WEC did turn out well, arguably due to LMDh, but this is an awful lot of regulatory hassle in different sports in a short period of time.

So a slight clarification on the comparison to modern fighter jets like the Eurofighter. In simple terms, modern military jets are aerodynamically unstable and require computer aided stabilisation because they are designed to have their centre of rotation as far back as possible, they handle sort of like a forklift in the way they steer from the rear. While a person could theoretically manage to fly the jet without computer assistance it'd be extremely physically/mentally taxing and leave virtually no room for error, it's sort of like trying to correct a wobble on a bike at 180mph where you can correct the instability with just the right amount of input but if you give it too much/little it'll quickly cascade beyond recovery. Active adjustable aero in a car likely won't be as critical because you don't have to design an unstable car to begin with, you're trying to enhance its natural balance rather than beat the laws of physics into a pulp. This would be reasonably easy to keep safe by physically limiting the degrees of movement of the control surfaces (ie. if it breaks then it can only move +/- 5 degrees), this would be no more dangerous than wing/body damage following contact or a DRS failure. It'll be interesting to see how it's governed, I'd kind of like to see the reigns taken off to see what the teams could come up with but at the same time I think we might end up in a position where the cars start outgrowing the safety of the tracks

While a lot of engine DNFs might make them look silly, I would like the unpredictability of it.

I never thought of the whole PU vs Engine and the whole sports entertainment vs Professional wrestling thing but it makes sense this isn’t FE ITS AN ENGINE!

I believe the reason why F1 never used active aerodynamics despite road cars using them is due to safety concerns. So many drivers died due to rear wing failures at high speeds (the most well known example is probably Bruce McLaren who died at Goodwood in 1970 when the rear bodywork of the car he was testing flew off at a high speed corner). Nobody will react fast enough to a sudden loss of downforce to save themselves. Even the current cars sometimes have DRS issues (Verstappen at the 2022 Spanish GP, Ricciardo in 2019 had his rear wing fly off during testing causing him to spin off track). It's the same reason why they won't return to active suspension either (Berger's crash in the 1993 Portuguese GP that could have been like Zanardi's crash was the result of the Ferrari's suspension malfunctioning). Also while a lot of people are willing to have slower cars in exchange for better racing, the fact remains that people love to roast F1 cars when they aren't the fastest in the world (mainly due to how snobbish F1 fans tend to be towards other motorsports fans). Even to this day people talk about how fast the 2004 cars were and there's always one person who goes "put the F2004 on slicks and it'll destroy modern F1 cars" and some people still love to point out how the 2014-2016 cars were slower than the GP2 cars of the time. I just hope the FIA gives the teams more time by pushing the new regulations back a few years so that we don't get a situation like 1994 where the cars are undrivable because the teams didn't have enough time to iron things out.

hey man, keepup the good work. been my go to guy for motorsport history and news since you started storytime :)

Once the engineers get their hands on the regulations, they'll make them much faster than F2. It's always the narrative 1.5 years out from a regulation change.

To make it a product again, they need 1. Competitive series where any number of teams can win. 2. Overtaking which you get through minimising the loss of grip behind a car whilst maximising the slipstream effect. 3. Cars that are exciting to drive and watch with more power, less grip. There should be zero electronic aids so what the driver puts in, the car does. And zero DRS or any other gimmick that isn’t racing. It ain’t rocket science

Another quality video and we’re getting closer to the Roberto Moreno story time!

The teams will ALWAYS find a way to make heaps of outwash. It's the meta now, build the car with basically a "no passing" force field.

FIA control over car designs is starting to kill my joy of watching F1.

This is one of the things I generally try not to give myself a headache trying to wrap my pretty little head around and just wait for your explanation and thoughts on. And as always you deliver. Still not sure if I have a coherent thought around it, but now I actually understand the issue at hand!

With regards to the moveable wings, I am assuming it is a similar concept to something like the McLaren P1 wing system where on the straights, the wing activates once you hit a certain speed, adjusts itself to minimize drag, and closes during deceleration and cornering.

Great video, certaily concerning that this issiue exits hopefully it will be sorted

OK, this is the best thing you've done in a while, please continue! If you are up for a challenging topic, how about delving into driver setup skills? The Good, The Bad, The Lucky? The Legends and the Useless? For example, driver feedback is only part of it - there also is the feel that can take the setup where the modeling doesn't or cannot. Truth or fiction?

If Vettel can run his FW14B on 100% renewable corn oil or whatever the fu**, then so can all of the F1 teams. Bring back NA V10’s!

Another great video Aidan

It’s kinda weird that the new engine regulations for 2026 have been known since 2022 I think? And the FIA r just now trying to figure out the ENTIRE rules and regulations for the 2026 cars. Like the idea of the engine regulations has been well known, 50/50 power between the ICE and Hybrid, with the car being kinda similar to the 2022-current regs, but the ins and outs of the regulations r still being decided, and in simulations the car is completely unstable. It’s like a triple A game developer how they’ll announce and make a game within a year or two or plus that depending on the developer, they release the game and it’s the most broken thing to ever come out and is basically with some still in beta form or worse pre alpha. I feel like come the 2026 season there’s gonna be a ton of reliability issues among teams and probably some other issues.

Production on the Roberto Moreno video should be in full swing by now.

I find weird cars not having failures given back in the day they were so common. Looks like a thing of the past like a crash with fuel igniting or racing in the wet

remember when it was discussed that they might see the removal of DRS on this current car? Now it's activated sooner than the previous car.

WEC is the true pinnacle of Motorsport.

They’re trying to be road-relevant, yet the current or new engines are not permitted to have VVT or VCT, which a great many road car engines now have.

Active aero is the next step forward Followed by active suspension and then.... Active drivers and oh shit we made battle bots

6:17 You are truly a REAL ONE for that reference Aiden.

My fave era of F1 was the 2000s, even when the aero became complex from 06 onwards. Cars looked great, could race still. Now with this bs it’s crazy

Love that you picked Roman’s lotus for the demo 😂

Yes you shunted at Copse and lost the rear wing, but since the rear wing did nothing it doesn’t matter. Genius Aidan!

I remember doing high front wing, no rear wing, balance tests using Indy 500 in about 1990. You could balance about 2 of 10 wing steps with the sway bars, after that you were spinning like a top. And cars at Indy don't run much downforce even on max wing.

They should only use the active aero to replace fixed-configuration DRS: the closer you're to the car in front, the smaller the DRS is open. This would allow continued use of DRS to balance out dirty air while limiting the super easy passes we've seen at some tracks since 2011. If you want an example of how awesome the fights could be, think Hamilton Vs. Schumacher at Monza 2011.

On the subject of the Eurofighter analogy, I don't think it''s about checking a great many instruments on the panels. Many modern fighters are inherently unstable, which means that only a computer can fly them at all, making constant, counter-intuitive corrections with the many control surfaces at all times. They very well might be able to drive the Fangio concept in a similar way, though probably not with great lap times if the thing is a real dog.

Great video Aidan. My humble opinion is that They should drop the hybrid malarkey. F1 should be about engine, suspension and aero.

What's the point of having Turbocharged engines now that MGU-H is gone? Go back to Naturally Aspirated v8/v10 with a MGU-K Hybrid. The 50/50 power split is also a marketing pipe dream - unreal w/o going too heavy. 65/35 max.

Would be great to see a video about how the F1 regs have evolved over time. Were there always so many back in the 60s and 70s? Are there too many? Would it be better with less? Is it really the pinnacle of motorsport with so many?

Wrestling’s fake? Wow! Thanks for ruining my childhood 😂😂😂😂😂😂

A lot of people talk about overtaking and dirty air. Thing is even if you take the dirty air away, you still have everyone running on rails meaning the time gained in corners is minimal. The only way to overtake is by DRS or lunging on the brakes at a hairpin which usually requires DRS to get close enough

Karma for not making the cars small enough still

Do you acknowledge your Tribal Chief, Aidan? (Great video, btw)

I wonder how much of the active aero push is to reduce the reliance on the engine power given weight is likely to increase with larger batteries. They’re kind of in a bit of a box.

That's gonna leave a mark in the morning!

Reminds me of all the former Indycar and F1 drivers tried to run ovals in NASCAR when they were pushing 1000 hp. Abilities don’t reflect car capabilities. Like Parker Kligerman mentioned earlier this week, these F1 engineers will figure this out. This will lead to some innovative ideas.

Hi there Aidan, nice polo shirt ya rockin there!! May I ask what size you went for, if you don’t mind me asking please ? I only ask because I don’t believe castore do what I would consider correct sizes ! Personally with over 30 years of F1 fandom under my belt, I find the only company to produce correct sizes regarding f1 merch are puma, with kappa in a close second, everyone else I seem to have to add anywhere between 1&4 X’s in front of the normal xl that I am !!

The euro fighter and f16 the flight surfaces are designed for maximum manoeuvrability and is unstable, so the plane will not stay in stable level flight and a pilot can not react quick enough for all the corrections required. if f1 goes this way its basically going back to the 93 regulations with all the driver aids and that might be a solution allow active suspension to keep the ground effect, but i think the biggest thing is this is the first real major change since burnie was not involved and it shows.

Wrestling is staged, not fake... lol. I'm not a wrestling, but they do beat each other up pretty good, they do deaden the hit when they can.

How high is the probability, that the new regulation gets postponed for another year? Seem almost unavoidable to me

It's funny. Previously, the FIA did everything they could to make the cars slower. Most recently, the 1998 rule set. Then, in 2017 they made them faster again. I enjoyed 1998 just as much as the 1997 season, even though they were much slower. I actually think the MP4/13 looks better than the MP4/12.

The issue with modern F1 is that technical regs are destroying competition. The FIA sees this issue and tries to fix it with.... More regs. I say let teams do whatever the hell they want, within reason. If RB wants bendy wings, let them do it. If Ferrarri wants to burn 50/50 oil and fuel, let them do it. If Merc wants their DAS and party mode, let them have it. Right now, if a team can't "get it right" within current regs, they have no other options. It's either develop the best solution first or be fighting for 16th place. Ease engine regs to just a displacement limit, which could change based on if the engine uses forced induction and/or or a hybrid system. Right now I can't tell you which team uses which engine because it doesn't matter. The biggest difference between cars is the side pods and what their brake ducts look like. Might as well be a spec series at this point.

I do like the idea of having engine jeopardy again, as heartbreaking as it can be there's been some iconic moments because of it

i say make.the cars smaller like they were 20 years ago, reduce cluttery and expensive electronics like 20 years ago and put just some fast engines in them,like 20 years ago , also reduce waste , reduce engineering time increase sustainability, just use the cars from 20 years ago

ONE HUNDRED K. ONE HUNDRED K. Well deserved, mate! 🎉🎉

Hi editing Aidan, you should get involved more!

My opinion is: The FIA's mouth wrote a cheque its hands can't cash.

I just want them to make the cars smaller again, but it seems that they are so focused on making the cars faster, they'll probably make them even longer and wider for "stability."

NA v8-v12 with varying displacement and bio-fuel. It's literally what every fan wants (minus the biofuel part, but whatever). They would increase revenue way more this way than by attracting any new constructor. It's mindblowing to me they don't just do this.

Oh yeah, having a lower rear wing and higher front wing makes the car easier to flip, especially if there is a rear-biased weight balance.

1:02 bang on brother

The active aero is a dangerous game. Imagine one of the moving panels detached at 300MPH !! .😮😮

This was a good thing. Thank you Aidan "Thing" Millward

Autonomous active aero which makes the car undriveable? It sounds like a car from 1998 anime. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Ogre AN-21)

Absolutely agree, what is the point in making them faster, does it make the racing any better, hell no, if there is no compromise then where is the difference going to be? If the cars are all trimmed out down the straights then DRS is going to have less effect surely? I think the Russell/Alonso accident (or whatever) shows how tapped out the car/driver combination is, to me at least it seems they are at the edge of what a driver can react to. With all the money rolling in from DTS, I think F1 is forgetting about the actual racing quality vs the drama, there will come a point where someone notices they have no clothes...

So you're telling me driving the new cars will be like having Lewis behind, punting you off in a fast right hander? 🤪 Another banger Aidan. Cheers.

It’s a conspiracy… they’re afraid Andretti-Cadillac will reapply. They figure if they don’t know what they’re building for it’ll keep them away. 😂

"...while preserving lap times." < bite point.

Honestly, if you're going to get rid of the MGU-H there's really no point in having turbocharged engines anymore. The fuel flow limit already gimps RPM and power as is, but if you get rid of the turbo you'll have the same power and fuel usage, but you can run the engines to a higher RPM for a more exciting sound. Not to mention they'd be much more responsive and thus better to drive and it would save a fair chunk on weight unless you force the teams to make their exhaust manifolds out of tungsten or something ridiculous. They're planning on getting rid of a lot of the ICE power for '26 anyway to reduce overall fuel usage per race to satisfy the EU so really, what's the harm in getting rid of the turbo? Even better if you mandate they run an x-pipe on the exhaust and have twin exits below the rear wing; that would sound mental. The other thing that I don't get is why they don't allow more experimental things like rotary valve heads or at least some copycat BMW Valvetronic system to get rid of the throttle bodies completely? The road relevance argument is mute no matter what engine you make them build as it's always going to be a super oversquare design with a VERY narrow valve included angle, which genuinely no street car is ever going to run because it makes the thing undrivable if you aren't giving it full tilt at high RPM. Oversquare designs are basically dead now due to emissions regulations anyway. Undersquare designs have less surface area for heat transfer and thus less heat losses but you can't rev them high at all, which doesn't matter since you can't rev high with direct injection anyway unless you have some sort of light-speed injectors with a quantum computer for the ECU. At least if they'd let them experiment with novel designs we might get something that would be useful for street cars until they eventually regulate combusion engines off showrooms. A lot of this tech has existed for decades now and it's only been barred from motorsports due to these regulations mandating the most basic "this is how wikipedia says a combustion engine is built" methods to be used instead of already proven reliable tech that would improve overall engine efficiency and responsiveness. There's a cost cap already in place to reduce costs for development wars, so who cares if they're allowed to risk their budget on experimenting with cool stuff we'd all love to see out on track?

It makes sense in a way, why disrupt the natural airflow over the car prematurely. I view these f1 cars as basically airplanes on wheels don’t see the need for active areo.

not a fan of the 50/50 engine idea bc electric power sucks the ICE should be the main power and the hybrid shit should be a bonus

I hope they are fast even if they are undrivable, that will make things exciting.

This might be a good thing. If they leave it late enough the only option will be to stick some non-hybrid V10s in there and get on with it.

I'm also guessing there will be a weight reduction in the "power unit" when they change, which means less mechanical weight behind the driver as well.

Taking a page out of Nascar's playbook I see 😂

Overreliance on aero - the enemy of good racing, and how to burn money. Again - Ban all aero but for a simple single-piece front and rear wing of mandated maximum horizontal area, mounted outside the axel lines. Dump the engine formula for an FIA provided fuel formula based initially on current regs and let the teams go ham. Oh, and mandate a maximum track and wheelbase roughly half that of the current cars... minimum weight for driver + seat only, so as not to penalise larger drivers. Standard Tyres. Otherwise anything goes, safety allowing.

The FIA... should be renamed to Fucked It Again.

Came for this essay, stayed for downforce settings tips at 5:20

Utter chaos could be pretty fun to watch.

Mazepin is back on the grid with those undriveable car physics...

Nice 180° turn after spinning out.the b2 bomber could not fly with out computers its shape makes it impossible so thats basically the same as what they want to do

Bring back the v10. Use carbon neutral fuel. Enable ERS, enable standard active suspension to everyone. Double DRS. And smaller cars. No TC MOTOR wise. Enable RD for improve efficiency and mild hibridazation 25/75

I don't understand the issue, sure you're going to struggle through a corner like Copse with no rear downforce, but you're not going to set the car up and run it like that, you're going to have it set to max downforce through that corner and then take it off during somewhere like the hanger straight.

I hope they are undriveable would be quite exciting

From the same people that thought not give mass dampeners or active suspension to a ground effect car would end well

Good job with “the thing”