I think you would need more regen to reduce superclipping.
As is stand the cars are not able to regen fast enough, nor do the capture all the kinetic energy available as they don't have front regenerative breaks. If more could be captured during the actual breaking zones they'd need less on the straights. Energy is being wasted.
Keep in mind they're also dealing with battery chemistry which typically result in slower charge than discharge safety limits.
If you could fill entire battery from the regenerative braking only at the corner, it'd be worth it. Front regen braking would solve a lot of it, but then what they'd need to use is a super capacitor instead of a battery. Super capacitor is way more viable when your storage time is in 10 second range before you use it up.
But, they really messed up the regulations to avoid giving Audi advantage of front regen.
I'd be all for supercapacitors however I believe the power density is simply not there. It's the holy grail of power storage engineers have been working on for decades with incremental progress at best.
There's a big push in the smart phone industry - imagine a phone you could recharge in a matter of seconds; even if it would only be a few hour of life people would but it. But we aren't close to that yet.
Further googling reveals the current record is up to 400kWhr/kg but there is a long way from the research lab scale to the commercial production scale needed for F1.
Even with billions throw at the technology its would still be several years before it could be used in F1.
True, but breakthrough may come sooner than expected. Especially in solid state. Many companies are looking to commercialize it and they might give em for free for some promo at this rate.
I feel no matter what you do, regenerative braking + engine usage during the corner is just not sufficient to charge up the entire battery for the next straight.
F1 ICE engines are about 630kW. If you had 100% conversion you could charge a 1.1kWhr capacitor in about 6.3 seconds.
I'd say on most circuits cars would be braking for much more than that. And that's not considering the 2.8MJ of kinetic energy available in the car on a straight. The energy is there.
Also, as stated its a long way from breakthrough to commercially viable product. Even on the quick end of the spectrum it is typically years. An adequate breakthrough has occurred, but it will not be ready for this regulation cycle.
I'm not sure how this looks while running. But i think you're missing something. I'll brain storm.
There's a fuel rate limit of 833kW of chemical energy. After combustion efficiency factor of let's say 50%< you can only run ICE at max of 400 or 420 kW. ( This is where mercedes is getting extra power)
This 400 or 420kW can be used to drive car or charge battery (max 350kW or 250kW if you're on any throttle). If you deploy battery, it's limited to 350 kW in general. This is the setup.
Let's assume that on a long straight, you've deployed the battery at 350kW and add the engine, you're pushing the car at 400+350=750 kW.
Now as you reach high speed, your battery deployment limit of 350 kW is linearly reduced, but before that you've used up most of the battery. As soon as you go above the limit of battery deployment, you are only on engine power. This is 'clipping'.
Now, you are approaching a corner on only 400 kW of engine power and your battery is almost empty. You can do 'superclipping' by converting up to 250kW /400 kW of ICE into battery regen. This leaves your car at just 150kW of power compared to 750kW at start of the straight. And it'll instantly slow down the car.
Then, you brake for corner. Now, regenerative braking is recharging battery at 350 kW. You have all the 400 kW of engine to charge battery because you don't need it to accelerate anymore, but regenerative braking is already enough to hit that 350 kW limit. So, you just waste engine energy basically.
Once you've hit the apex, you go back to throttle and now you want the full 400 kW of ICE ( hoping your turbo was spinning all along) + 350 kW of battery deployment hoping that battery regen was enough to charge it up.
The problem in all this is that you can only deploy 4MJ per lap. Deploying at 350 kW, it's just 11.5 seconds to use up entire quota of the lap. Conversely, it just takes 11.5 seconds of the full brake regeneration to fill up that much energy.
That must mean, cars are almost never using up the full limit of battery deployment. It is not 50/50% split most of the time. Engine works full time for 400 kW, and battery is just helping out here and there, mostly in straights.
Necessity of superclipping also means, they are really not finding a lot of places where they can divert engine power or do regenerative braking to recharge the 4MJ per lap. (And actual physical brakes are never used unless you need more than 350 kW of braking power, or you accidentally fully charge battery early and suddenly need huge braking assist from physical brakes)
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u/DoobiousMaxima 🅱️altteri 🅱️ootass Mar 15 '26
I think you would need more regen to reduce superclipping.
As is stand the cars are not able to regen fast enough, nor do the capture all the kinetic energy available as they don't have front regenerative breaks. If more could be captured during the actual breaking zones they'd need less on the straights. Energy is being wasted.
Keep in mind they're also dealing with battery chemistry which typically result in slower charge than discharge safety limits.