F1 Explains: flashing lights, fast fixes + F1 engine customers

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1:09Christian Hewgill:Hello, everyone. Welcome to F1 Explains. I'm Christian Hugill, just back from Australia, and this is the official Formula 1 podcast, which answers your question about the sport. So we've seen the first race of 2026 and you have sent your questions about it to F1explains at F1.com. We thought this was a good opportunity to take a step back and just think about what we've witnessed. The first race of a new era. Inevitably, there'll be questions. So let's get you some answers from F1 correspondent and presenter Lawrence Barreto. Lawrence, welcome back. A second appearance in three weeks for you on the podcast.

1:44Lawrence Barretto:I feel honoured Christian especially because I've just spent the last week or so with you in Australia and the first gig I do on the way back is with you virtually so it's an absolute joy mate

1:54Christian Hewgill:well that's lovely of you thank you for saying nice things the eagle-eared amongst you will have noticed at the end of the last episode I said we'd be with Alex Jakes but such is Lawrence's commitment to the cause he's stepping in as a super sub due to some connections issue to Alex Jakes in China so we appreciate it Lawrence We appreciate your flexibility, versatility and commitment to Formula One. And we appreciate you coming on the podcast twice in quick succession. We're considering renaming it Lawrence Barreto Explains. Is that OK with you?

2:26Lawrence Barretto:I'm happy with that. Yeah, you can have me anytime, mate. Thank you.

2:32Christian Hewgill:Thank you. Excellent. Right. Let's get to those questions. Let's get to those questions quite quickly, actually. F1explains at F1.com is the email address. As we say this, send us questions up and down the season. A lot of you will be new to F1 Explains, given we're in our new home on the F1 Nation feed. Sometimes we're tackling an individual topic that might have absolutely no relevance to the race you've just saw. Sometimes we'll do some quick-fire episodes, very much like this one, where we'll dig into stuff we've seen in the last few weeks. And, of course, loads of questions recently given our new era.

3:04Christian Hewgill:So Adam from Boston in the USA has a question about the red lights that you see on the back of the cars. This is new, of course, for 2026. Adam says, hi, guys, I'd like to know why the battery recharging requires the red lights at the back of the car to flash. Seems a bit ostentatious. Lovely use of the word ostentatious, Adam from Boston, for such a private matter. And it looks like a normal car braking, which is confusing. I mean, there are more private matters in the world, Adam, but still. Lawrence, why, despite Adam thinking it's a bit ostentatious, why does that happen?

3:42Lawrence Barretto:Well, things are a little bit different this year in terms of the way that the power unit works. We've got a 50-50 split between petrol and electric, and the engines are going to be doing a lot of recharge around the lap. It just means that this year on the straights, cars won't be going full pelt for the whole distance. And therefore, for various reasons, they'll be going at different speeds. So it's just to give the driver behind a heads up, really, as to the nature of just how slow the car in front is going for recharge reasons. So it's this new oval shaped light. It's at the centre of the rear of the car.

4:16Lawrence Barretto:So it'll be super easy for the drivers to see. And so if a team or driver decides to lower the maximum power, so to save it and to save the battery, then a sequence of a flashing light sequence will begin. Now, a single flash means that the MG UK is delivering less electrical power than the set maximum, which this year is 350 kilowatts. If you get two flashes, it means it stopped delivering power completely. and so you're going to get multiple quick flashes that follow that shows the mduk is recharging so essentially it will just give the driver behind an idea of the level um of pace that will reduce

4:53Christian Hewgill:for the driver in front hopefully that makes sense nice stuff and it makes perfect sense some of this stuff will take a little getting used to that's why we're here and this next question actually got sent in from two separate listeners on similar lines with some of the new things we're getting used to this season so patricia from sydney hello patricia and christopher we don't know where christopher's from by all means let us know christopher they both asked about the new engine modes for this season they say i'd love to know where on track drivers are using the boost button as well as the overtake button before you get onto the actual question lawrence probably worth reminding ourselves given this is new as i say firstly what's the difference between the boost button and the overtake button and then when might the drivers be using that on track

5:38Lawrence Barretto:I think that's a good idea, mostly because myself, all other commentators, reporters have probably reminded ourselves consistently.

5:44Christian Hewgill:We're all still getting used to it. Yes, of course we are.

5:46Lawrence Barretto:Because there's lots of new things for F1 this year. So, OK, you've got a boost button and then there isn't such a thing actually as an overtake button. It's more of a state, but I'll explain that in a second. So to kick off with a boost button, that will allow drivers to sustain electrical power at its maximum for longer on a straight. So essentially, they'll have this use of extra energy to deploy at any point around the lap. Now, we saw in Australia when Charles Leclerc and George Russell were fighting for the lead. There were seven overtakes in 10 laps and it was at different points in the circuit.

6:20Lawrence Barretto:So one driver might choose to use their electrical charge to get past. But as we saw in that battle, the other driver will have stored up their energy and then can use that energy again from the boost button to repass later on in the lap. so it is a good kind of cat and mouse um opportunity for the drivers to fight each other consistently for more than once over a lap so you've got the boost button that will normally be configured up to 350 kilowatts but it depends on how the teams will map their engines so it gets quite technical um from this perspective but essentially teams can have up to 350 kilowatts of power and that will just obviously allow them to maximize that down the street now you've got overtake now overtake is a kind of a replacement for drs in the sense that last year when you're following a car within one second uh you got use of the drs but obviously that's not um within the rules this year we've got active aero so the flaps on the rear and for this year the front wings will be open um on all straights in what we call straight mode so overtake is what i said at the beginning it's a state so effectively when you cross the detection point within a second of the arrival ahead like with DRS you can have access to more energy so you can kind of recover more energy over the course of the lap and then use that within the boost function so if you can use that energy plus the energy you get for boost the idea is that it should help you in the bid to do an overtake.

7:49Christian Hewgill:Now I worked out at the weekend why this was taking me a bit of getting used to Lawrence see if this makes sense with DRS back in the day it was activated when you were within a second of your car in front but it was an aerodynamic thing it was a flap on the rear wing the thing that is activated within a second of the car in front in this new era is a battery related thing the boost button however we're also now getting used to straight zones where the drivers can use their aerodynamic thing the active aero which is sort of similar to drs but you can use the active aero at any point can't you so long as you're in a straight zone you don't have to be within a second of the car in front i've got that right haven't i you have exactly so every time you

8:39Lawrence Barretto:enter a straight mode zone which will normally be all of the straights um on a grand prix circuit you don't it doesn't matter where you are you might be several seconds behind the car in front you might be out on your own or you might be in a long train of cars all within one second but the flaps will open for the whole entirety of the straight whether or not you're close enough

9:00Christian Hewgill:to the car in front or not so being within a second of your arrival is now an advantage using the battery as opposed to using a piece of the aerodynamic wing which i think i don't know if that's just me i think that's partly why it took me a little bit of getting used to but again i think we said this on the first episode lawrence it's amazing that a weekend of watching it and i'm now like oh okay yeah fine that's the thing i think that was a big part of it is that we obviously

9:23Lawrence Barretto:went through pre-season testing we had the shakedowns but we didn't get the opportunity to see a lot of this technology and these new terms put into action until we saw it in racing format and we saw it through qualifying and the race and i think it just made a lot more sense then when we saw it in reality and it will only become clearer in a couple races and i'm convinced that by the time we get to sort of april may uh june it'll be so much clearer that we won't even and be thinking about it. It would just be very good to us all.

9:49Christian Hewgill:Yeah, it's muscle memory, isn't it? Right, we're going to Greenwood in Indiana now and to Karen. Apparently, Karen has another question at the end, Lawrence, about a highly technical piece of F1 jargon. So we're going to double Karen this week on F1 Explains. But let's do Karen's first question. Karen says, we saw in Melbourne that Mercedes seemed to have an advantage over their customer teams. So Karen has a question about those teams who buy their power units from other teams. So McLaren, Alpine and Williams use Mercedes. Haas and Cadillac use Ferrari, for example. Karen asks, are customers allowed to make any changes to those power units?

10:32Lawrence Barretto:So no, is the simple answer to that. Essentially, a manufacturer like Mercedes or Ferrari, they will create a power unit for their works team. and then it is within the rules that you have to give that exact same power unit to your customers so everything is equal you can't give them a power unit that is down on power operates in a different way is calibrated in a different way it has to be the exact same unit so what mercedes have in the back of the car will be the same as the power unit in the back of the mclaren and the alpine and the williams what is different is that in the the knowledge you've got off that power unit now obviously if you're a manufacturer and you've been working on this power unit for for years you will have known how it's come together you will you will have the extra know-how into how to get the best out of it obviously when you're a customer you get given this power unit you get given the instruction manual essentially of how to make the most out of it but you won't have qr code nowadays i would imagine yes or they'll have to watch a youtube video that's how i learn how to do stuff yeah exactly very sustainable as well so yeah i like that christian um that's what i was thinking saving the trees you know saving the trees uh one step at a time uh so essentially all of the customers have just got to go through a learning period and i was talking to a well-placed source actually um in australia on sunday night and they explained it to me really well obviously we use ai a lot more these days and when you input um a question you get the answer and everyone can have access to the same answer but what is key to making the most out of ai is asking the right question and i think when you are the manufacturer you have more know-how into how to phrase the question in the right way to then get the best performing answer and i think the customers will obviously not have that same know-how because they've just been given the power unit and so it's going to take them some time to essentially ask the right question in order to get the most out of the power unit so i think at the moment that's why you're seeing teams like mclaren and Williams and Alpine not being able to get the most out of the Mercedes power unit but let's not forget it is only race one and let's also not forget the McLaren have won the last two Constructors Championships as a customer so I think towards the end of a reg set or a few years into a reg set it is clear that it won't be a it won't be a barrier to you fighting for a World Championship it would just take you a little bit of time to get on top of it.

12:55Christian Hewgill:Yeah I completely agree and I'm really glad Karen's brought this up it's a great question we coming into these rule sets you heard a lot of people in the know say we're expecting mercedes to be strong we're expecting ferrari to be strong a couple of reasons for this number one is these are teams with resources and know-how in making new engines so when a rule set is engine dependent you expect these big names to come out the blocks well because they've got the history they've got the staff they've got the know-how previously in previous generations of formula one it was always seen as such an advantage to make your own power unit to be what we call the works team we've seen in recent years mclaren almost break that rule by being really the quickest car in formula one ever since sort of really miami what 2024 overall being the quickest car in f1 and buying an engine from someone else.

13:53Christian Hewgill:It's partly what inspired Alpine to stop its program of making its Renault engines and buying another engine. Well, listen, it's not stopped McLaren being successful. But I think we're seeing, as Lawrence says, albeit probably temporarily, at the start of this new rule set, we're seeing the advantages lie with Ferrari and Mercedes who immediately know how to get the best out of this power unit. And I think it will take time. But as Lawrence, I completely agree with Lawrence. I mean, I don't like to disagree with Lawrence Barreto at any point in my life. But yeah, I completely agree with Lawrence.

14:23Christian Hewgill:I don't think this will be a permanent thing, but I think this is why we're seeing the likes of McLaren take a little bit longer to get used to it. I just also want to say on the engines front as well, Lawrence, we should say, you know, a couple of our newer engine manufacturers, so brand new in Audi, making an engine for the first time, to come into F1 as an engine manufacturer and score points in your debut weekend, immensely successful. and I was actually at the launch of Red Bull season, which was heavily influenced by Ford and celebrating Ford coming back into the sport who are Red Bull's technical partner on the engine side.

15:00Christian Hewgill:They don't fully make the engine, but they assist. They've been, I think, pleasantly surprised by how immediately competitive they've been out the blocks and real good efforts from the likes of Red Bull, powertrains, Ford and Audi this weekend on the engine side of things.

15:14Lawrence Barretto:Yeah, absolutely. I think Audi taking them first. They are the only team that are running the Audi power unit. So they have less data to analyze, you know, relative to Mercedes, who have got four teams effectively running their power unit. I think the job that Red Bull have done to start from scratch. So whereas Audi are obviously a successful automotive manufacturer and have had success in other motorsports, Red Bull have started an engine facility from scratch with no expertise.

15:40Christian Hewgill:It's not a brand known immediately for making engines, is it? They make other things famously very well. But, you know, they've surprised us. They've been brilliant.

15:48Lawrence Barretto:But they were very smart. You know, they went and got technical know-how from the very best. A lot of Mercedes staff who worked at their Bricksworth base made a move over to Red Bull. They left no stone unturned in terms of the quality of the facility that they bought, that they built rather, and Milton Keynes. They partnered with Ford, who obviously got huge experience, particularly on the electric battery side, to partner up with. And yeah, I think the job that both Audi and Red Bull have done, Red Bull Ford have done is very impressive from a reliability perspective. But I think it does show that still, if you look at the power difference between those two manufacturers and Mercedes and Ferrari have been in the sport for decades now.

16:29Lawrence Barretto:I think it just shows that you, no matter how much experience you've got, when you're starting from scratch, you can't just turn up and mix it with the best straight away. And I think that is a good thing because I think otherwise everyone would do it essentially. so it will take time and I'm sure they will do and I think as this regulation cycle becomes more mature I think that the Red Bull power unit and the Audi power unit will chase and catch Mercedes and Ferrari out but it will take time and it also speaks volumes for the quality of the job that Mercedes and Ferrari have done to react to these new roles

17:00Christian Hewgill:Lovely stuff Lawrence stay there back with more in just a moment

17:12Christian Hewgill:Welcome back to F1 Explains. I'm Christian Hugill. I'm with F1 correspondent Lawrence Barretta as we take a moment to reflect on the first race of the season and answer some of your questions from all over the world. F1 Explains at F1.com is the place to send us those questions. We will be answering them all season. This one comes in from Alex in Bucharest. Now, we love every listener who sends us a question, every single one, but we especially love those who have one question answered and then come back for more. Alex from Bucharest is already notching up a second question of the season. Excellent from you, Alex.

17:47Christian Hewgill:Because, or excellent in many ways, because, you know, obviously we don't pick every question. So this means not only is Alex coming in with a good number of questions, but also strong quality of questions. So well done, Alex. Excellent from you. Alex asks, if it is a good question, this. Alex asks, if the drivers break the front wing, will the active aero system be ruined for the rest of the race? or can they change the wing at a pit stop and it'll just be fine? Really good question. Lawrence?

18:17Lawrence Barretto:Yep, completely agree. So just to explain, the active airway system is different for this year in that last year we had DRS, so there was a rear wing flap. This year we've got that rear wing flap, but it will, as we discussed earlier, open on every single straight. We've also got the same functionality on the front wing as well. So you'll see both flaps open at the same time when you enter the straight. So here's a good point. if there was damage to the front wing if there was contact saying to the first corner or they're going wheel to wheel will that have an impact on the active aero well the good news is it's kind of like changing the head on an electric toothbrush so essentially you take the old head um that's kind of frayed no use anymore take it off you put the new one on and then it works

18:59Christian Hewgill:um as effectively as it did beforehand it's a lovely analogy is that your analogy or producer chris's i style it from producer chris lovely from producer chris there excellent well done producer chris that's a lovely analogy i really like that some of his finest work so some of his finest work yeah hello to all the dentists out there as well um but just to note that obviously

19:22Lawrence Barretto:when a driver is out there say there is a just a tiny bit of damage to the to the front wing and a driver might decide to stay out um with that wing even if the front wing flap say is damaged so long as the active aero system is still working so they don't have to necessarily pit immediately to get a new front wing they might be able to continue and not lose that time that you would lose when you make a pit stop to change the nose unless of course the damage has damaged the active aero functionality and then of course you'd have to pit to get a new front wing i can't remember

19:55Christian Hewgill:what session this cropped up in over the weekend but there was definitely some talking commentary about the length of time it takes to change a front wing increasing. So yes, with the electric toothbrush analogy that we enjoy so much, it will work, but it will work once you've got it on. And the theory was that the act of putting it on, particularly during a race, might take a few seconds longer, particularly in these early stages of the season, than it did before. So again, that might be something to watch out for. If there's only a minor piece of front wing damage, and you're losing something aerodynamically, how much time would you lose during the race?

20:36Christian Hewgill:Bearing in mind to change that front wing will take longer than it did before. If you're newer to Formula 1, a front wing change is very possible during the race. We see it all the time. A rear wing change is impossible. If you've broken your rear wing, you are 99.9 % of the time out of the race. That's a much more complicated beast of change. So that's something to watch out for. Lovely work, Alex from Bucharest. Great question. I do love the global nature of this podcast because we're now going to Sonora in Mexico. Firstly, I hope I pronounced that right. Sonora? Lawrence, you're a well-travelled man.

21:09Christian Hewgill:Sonora? I mean, that sounds right to me. Sounds right. Kenny's in Sonora in Mexico. Kenny, let us know if I've messed that up. It's possible. Kenny asks about how Mercedes rebuilt Kimi Antonelli's car after he crashed in final practice. Kenny's question is simply, how did the mechanics manage to repair it so quickly? He ends his email by saying, possibly unsurprisingly, go Checo. Lovely to have Checo back in Formula One. Of course it is. But yeah, what an effort that was from the Mercedes team. I have to admit, Lawrence, I looked at that crash and thought, Kimi's not getting out in qualifying.