Introductions, 2026 F1 Regulations and Predictions - Episode 1 - The Cooldown Lap

Welcome to the Cool Down Lab Podcast.

Welcome back to our first episode.

Well, I'm so used to my old podcast, and I realize by everyone,

there's like 10 people following us so far, so we're very new.

But welcome to episode one of the Cool Down Lab Podcast.

I'm your host, Jogpaul, and we have...

Garrett.

Perfect.

Welcome to the show, everybody.

Yeah, welcome to the show, where we're

going to be having a lot of fun conversations about podcast,

no, about F1, and Garrett, why did we start this?

Why did we start this?

Well, I mean, on a serious and unserious note,

we both got the F1 bug real bad.

We talked about it nonstop.

We sent each other memes and reels back and forth,

and we talk our partners' ears off.

And they both pretty well said, hey,

if you guys want to talk about this so much,

why don't you go talk together, go hang out?

So we did.

And over some sushi, we thought, hey,

this is a lot of fun talking about it in my house or your house.

But we should talk about this more formally.

We should do something fun with it.

And from there, as any good friends say, let's start a podcast.

And so here we are.

Let's start a podcast, putting our money where our mouth is,

and where this goes.

So first off, we would like to say you're welcome,

Simran and Sid.

We will no longer bug you about F1.

I can't tell you how annoyed Simran gets when I just

talk about, oh my god, Fernando, this, along with that,

and she's like, dude, get a life.

And I'm like, Garrett, you want to go get a life together?

And here we are.

Let's go get a life together.

Here we are.

Garrett, what got you into F1?

You've been in it a little bit longer than I have,

and I've obviously seen you post things every now and then.

And that's how I started talking to you about it.

But what got you into it?

So while I was going through medical school,

we got to the end.

And there were these two really big daunting exams

that we had to prepare for and had about four weeks to do it.

And as every good medical student does,

you study while watching something on Netflix

to pass the time and have a little bit of company.

And I turned on Good Old Drive to survive.

And that kind of got me hooked.

That was the virus, the catalyst, if you will,

to me getting into F1.

I binge watched the whole thing.

And when I finished that, I said, huh, that was a lot

of fun.

I should go watch real racing, though,

because this probably dramatized quite a bit.

And over the next three weeks while I

studied for my licensing and board exams,

I probably watched two and a half real seasons of F1,

pretty well nonstop every waking hour while I was studying.

And then I watched probably one of the most exciting

seasons of F1 to date, 2021.

And that was it.

I was hooked.

And as you can tell, I drank the correct Kool-Aid,

during for Red Bull, not Aston Martin,

because I wanted to be a winner.

And that was the team I chose.

That is fair.

They've been doing good since.

But Max Verstappen is definitely the goal.

And he's the reason why Red Bull is Red Bull.

I chose my champion wisely.

That's why I'm here.

But tell me about yourself.

I know you got the bug a little bit later.

But the passion's been fiery for it.

I think you know almost as much, if not more,

about F1 than I do after watching it for a year.

And I've been watching almost for five now.

So you've gone quick into it.

I go all into things.

And F1 has definitely been one of them.

In the past, it's been, say, bodybuilding.

I'm a bodybuilder, a fitness coach,

worked in gyms, studios.

And when I go in, I'm like, OK, let's do this.

And now it's F1.

And how I got into it is funny.

So Simran, my fiance, has been watching this for so long.

And she's always like, oh, she's also part of the Drive

to Survive wave.

So she's like, OK, F1 is really cool.

It's super interesting.

You would love it.

And she's told me for years.

She's like, dude, you know about cars.

You love cars.

I am a car enthusiast.

I have a motorcycle.

I have a summer car.

I work on my cars.

I've always been a car guy.

But I'm just like, oh, dude, driving around in a circle.

Cars, that's boring.

I'd rather drive my cars and have fun with it.

Enjoy riding motorcycles going fast myself.

You thought F1 was an ass car.

Drive fast and get left.

I didn't know.

I'm like, these cars look cool.

But whatever.

And I've never been a big sports guy.

I've always played sports.

I've always played cricket, rugby, whatever.

Even bodybuilding.

I didn't really wash a lot of bodybuilding.

But I would be really good at it, whatever I did.

So I'm sick of that's another sport, not too big into it.

But then here comes this beautiful man

named Brad Pitt on the big screen, watching F1, which

I just like, I'm like, and as I

was watching the F1 movie, Simran's like, nudge me.

She's like, oh, that's Tota Wolf or that's Fred Visser.

That's whoever.

You know what I mean?

I'm like, I don't know who the fuck these people are.

I don't care.

You know what I mean?

Whatever.

And then towards the end of the movie, I was like,

Simran, is it actually like this?

It's not circles.

There's a midfield.

I didn't even think it was that technical.

There's a midfield.

There's strategies.

There's like, what's going on?

This is more complex than I thought.

And she's like, yeah, it's kind of like this.

And I'm like, all right, I want to get into this.

So I start watching Drive Just Survive from there.

Bange watched it.

And coming up to actually July and the mid-summer break,

I'm like, OK, I want to watch it.

I didn't know where to watch it, so I subscribed to F1 TV.

And I'm like, OK, I'm paying $130.

I'm committed.

I got to watch the races.

I don't care if I don't know what's going on.

I'm going to figure it out.

And that's exactly what happened.

And funny enough, I subscribed to F1 TV

on my Mexico trip in Cancun while I was on my celebratory

tip for proposing to my fiancé.

And that's where I watched my first race

was in Mexico.

Yeah, yeah, while we're in Cancun.

Why would I pay attention to my partner?

I should watch F1.

That's why we're here.

And that's probably why Sermon's kind of salty about it.

So yeah, the obsession runs deep.

And so does our friendship.

Why don't you give people a little bit of a glimpse

into how long we've known each other

and how that's looked over time

and why that makes us the perfect pair to bullshit

about F1 and to follow these seasons a little bit more

publicly.

Man, I don't even know where to start with that.

We're like high school buddies.

To be honest with you, from the outdoors club,

me and you in high school capping together is just like.

The pow club, the pursuit of outdoor wickedness.

Yeah, the pow club.

I remember telling Garrett in the middle of the night,

bro, I'm scared of bears in the middle of town,

in the middle of nowhere.

He's like, yeah, they're scary, man.

Too, man, to like going to you for like, you know,

like all my like, even physical issues,

like bodybuilding, like you fixing me up, man.

Like, you've always been like the go-to guy.

And like, and now I'm excited to like talk F1 with you.

Like it's been like, what, 15 years of friendship

and like just knowing each other for like half of our lives.

And here we are, man.

Like, here we are.

Yeah, we look like kids when we started.

You know, we look like grown ass old men.

Exactly.

We're even older at heart.

So, yeah, for sure.

That's what we're talking about cars.

So this podcast, what do we really want it to look like?

We want this to be a mix of fun and serious.

We want this podcast to be, you know,

an opportunity for people like us who, you know,

got the F1 bug, who are figuring it out as they go

to have a place to talk about it

and to kind of track some of the stuff that's happening.

Part of that will be technical.

To the best of our knowledge,

we certainly aren't aerospace engineers.

I'm not sitting here next to Adrian Newey,

albeit he's wearing the right kit for it.

But we're here just to chat about it

and to recap week by week what we think's happening

to, you know, have fun with the season.

But part of that starts with setting the stage.

And so that's what we're really hoping to do today.

Introduce to you guys a little bit more

to who we are, what we're hoping to do with this podcast

and then jump into some of the really exciting things

to come the season of 2020.

2020 is a big season.

Yeah, you absolutely nailed it.

I think there's a lot of podcasts.

Like I watched a lot of podcasts,

like the P1 podcast, you know, the pit stop, what not.

All of them are based out of Europe.

There's a lot of, you know, European podcasts.

And I feel like there's been this big wave

coming into North America, you know,

with all the races that they're bringing in,

the F1 movie Hollywood coming into the play now.

And there's like a second wave after Drive just arrived.

So like I definitely felt like

with the new regulations coming in

and there's so many probably new people,

just like me after the F1 movie trying to get into it,

it's a good time just to like talk about it together.

Cause like I know when I caught that bug,

I was like, what can I listen to?

Where can I go?

Like even when I was here in Vancouver, Canada,

like I was like, hey, like where can I go watch the race?

Like there's nowhere to go.

You know, there's no, you know what I mean?

Like I just want to, I want to sense a community here.

You know, and I feel like being a Canadian podcast,

you know, having a Canadian Grand Prix,

we can create a sense of community with Garen and I,

you know, and that's what we're here to do.

100%.

And you probably could have guessed for Canadian

because the logo, the cool down podcast,

we got cars, we got frozen,

we got, we got ice all over the logo.

So, you know, we're really trying to represent

the Canadian brand and, you know,

give people a lens that's different

than what they're used to seeing in Europe.

Oh, hey, if you're ever confused, why?

Just go to the Canadian Grand Prix

and surround page and look at our track right now.

It'll make a lot of sense why our logo looks like that.

Look at the track in January as opposed to August.

It's real snowy.

There are polar bears, but it's cold up here for sure.

Jump back into things here after a quick interruption.

So we want to jump into, you know, the 2026 season,

what's coming ahead here, you know,

Jogpaul mentioned earlier that, you know,

it's a new season.

It's, you know, the five year shift of the regulations

and that opens up a whole lot of unknown.

They're completely revamping the cars

this year we're going from a really strict

ground effect era to something completely different.

They're getting rid of DRS

and they're putting right back in DRS

with a different name.

We're excited to see what happens.

And so the 2026 season holds a lot of unknowns,

but that's where we're going to start it off.

Since you've been doing the big technical dive,

why don't you jump into a little bit more

about what's coming in 2026, how you see that going?

Yeah, well, when it comes down to like

the technicalities I'm going to be speaking

from a very surface level again,

but the biggest thing is going to be

the new power units, right?

So basically right now I believe

there are 70% gas powered and 30% battery.

So again, that they do have a boost feature,

an overtake button,

and they have drag reduction system, DRS.

So what's going to happen this year

is they're going to be going actually 50% gas

and 50% battery powered.

And actually there was a really funny video going around.

I think I sent it to you.

I fell for it, that Audi that was flying by

at one of their, I guess their promo events.

That was AI from what I found out.

Was it?

Yeah, yeah.

So there was this video

because now everyone is wanting to hear

what the engines are going to sound like.

And it literally flew by this Audi

and it sounded like a TIE fighter from like Star Wars.

And I'm like, oh my God, that sounds crazy.

Like an alien.

And it was AI.

So it was not real,

but that's why everyone is kind of anticipating

a big battery influenced kind of sound.

But Honda did release the sound of their engine.

I believe Mercedes did as well.

And it sounds pretty good.

Gotta say Honda sounds a lot better than Mercedes,

but we'll get into that in a little bit.

There is a lot of excitement

because this first year,

especially with the new regulations,

as is with every change of regulation,

year one is gonna be who made it and who didn't.

There's gonna be a few teams who come out with

the best engine, the best internal combustion side

and the best power unit or mixed of the two.

And we often see a huge spread of the field

when one team gets it right.

And we see someone shockingly low down

in the running when they get it wrong.

So it leaves us with a lot of excitement,

a lot of anticipation.

And by the end of today's episode,

some wild predictions without a whole lot of knowledge

that we're gonna set the stage.

We'll come back at the end of the year

and see how close we came from side unseen

to following the season all the way through.

Garrett, isn't that like the best though,

is like when you don't know what's gonna happen

and we're like, you know what, let's just like

blindfold, let's throw darts at the wall,

let's see who it smokes, you know what I mean?

Like let's just go for it.

So let's see what happens, you know?

100%.

So we're going into this year heavily biased

on who we both cheer for.

The cars are completely different.

There's gonna be drag reduction systems at the front

and the back of the car.

There's gonna be completely different setups on the engine.

And the cars are even gonna ride different

because they don't have the same aerodynamics

that forced them in the last iteration

to confess to the floor.

Yeah, which was just something that...

Sorry, go ahead.

I think we're gonna see a lot of disparity

and a lot of difference between these 20 basic cars

they shrink the car as they compress it on both sides

and they try to bring us back to a little bit racier

of a year so the cars can get close, follow each other.

Hopefully it gets a little bit more excitement

than the processional races from 2022 to 2025.

And you know what, like another key feature

of the change was like, there's no more MGUH unit

which is actually gathering a heat from the car

to reproduce more energy.

And then you're nailed it.

The aero, I think it's called the new aero protocol

which is basically the front wing

actually moves along with the back wing.

But from my understanding, you can use that whenever.

And you can use the...

So the battery, 50% battery is gonna be used

for manual override.

So basically manual overtake.

And what that means is you can also use your battery

boost to overtake at any time on the track.

So no more DRS zones, no more DRS trains,

smaller cars, more nimble cars, more overtaking, more drama.

I think we're in for a pretty exciting season.

I think we're in for a pretty exciting season

and it puts a lot of onus on the drivers too, right?

Like they use the last season or last couple of seasons

it's really been, show up to the DRS zone

if you're there close enough, you can make a pass.

But when you give drivers the chance

to mess with their aero configuration

or add boost at unconventional areas

and unpredictable areas,

it puts it a lot more in the driver's hand.

So I think we're gonna see a lot more

of a driver's skill in this era

and it'll be really exciting to see who comes through,

who the big favorites are,

who are the outliers and who flops.

Yeah, and you know what?

There's so much technicality

that's gonna go behind it with energy usage.

So a lot of, I don't know if you know,

but like a lot of people might be driving in certain gears

or might have to break sooner or later

to kind of store some energy or deploy energy.

And like I think it's gonna be starting

to become a big energy usage,

kind of like a chess match, you know what I mean?

Like when you use energy, when you store energy,

how you regain energy, like it's all gonna be,

I'm just curious to see how we're gonna,

as people watching, are gonna be able to see that,

see the strategy behind it

and kind of see how they're kind of using their energy

and how they're saving it

or you're regaining it to be quite honest with you,

but it's gonna be a lot of technicalities

in that standpoint.

So who do you think is gonna be good at like,

adapting to these changes right off the bat?

Well, I think when you look at the previous seasons

in this season, it's almost like

watching chess versus checkers.

Like the last couple of seasons,

there's a DRS zone, here's a straight,

that's where we expect it to go down.

I think this year it's gonna be a big strategy game

because you can deploy, or you can change the era

wherever plus or minus the boost button.

And I think we're really gonna see the teams

that show the best technical ability

and the best strategic ability come to the top.

And we know from years past, that's Mercedes,

that's Red Bull.

I don't know about the Papaya rules,

but we'll see how they do whether or not

they decide to bend it or rise to the top.

I think someone like William to James Bowell at the helm

probably are bringing a lot of strategy

that will be exciting.

I think that people are able to capitalize on that

and really focus on the strategy behind it.

They're gonna be the ones rising to the top

while the people who are incredibly fast

might still drop further down the order

than we anticipate,

if they're not gonna control things

and make the best out of their cars.

I completely agree with you.

I think all of those teams that you mentioned

were spot on,

but we do have to talk about the big advantage

is gonna be the engine itself.

And we got Red Bull and Mercedes

coming out with a loophole that they're exploiting.

So what do you think about that?

It's crazy that right off the bat,

new regulations and they're the ones that figured it out.

How do you feel about that?

Wipe the big smile off your face.

We get it, you're happy about it.

We'll see what happens at the testing,

but what do you think?

We know that F1's all about innovation, right?

We know F1's all about pushing the boundaries.

We know that the team that shows up

with the barely legal, questionable legal car

is gonna have an advantage.

And Red Bull and Mercedes showed up

or at least a rumor to be shown up

with an engine that's gonna put out

a lot more horsepower than everyone else on the grid.

Now, they're gonna have that loophole

if it exists for about a year

unless something changes between now and then.

But we'll see.

We know that Mercedes supplies

a whole lot of different cars on the grid.

We know there's some new cars on the grid

including Audi, Cadillac and you know,

Audi's bringing their own engines.

We really don't know what to expect

until we see the cars hit the track for testing,

but it's exciting.

These two engines could be rocket ships.

They could also be cannonballs.

These things could go out, drive two laps and blow up.

We really don't know until we see it happen,

but we know that they're trying to push the envelope.

They're trying to push the engines past

what they're intended to

by having metals that morph under pressure

to give them a higher horsepower output.

That could be success.

That could be catastrophe.

It could be a great year for Red Bull and Mercedes engines.

Could be, you know, Aston Martin's year.

We don't know until those cars hit the track

and either succeed or cannonball along the way.

You know what, what I haven't heard

and we know as fact right now

is Ferrari have not found that loophole

and they are complaining to the FIA

about this loophole that it got to expose.

So what do you think about that?

Do you think, Garrett, honestly,

do you think this is something that should be kind of,

hey, they figured it out.

It's a loophole, cool.

And for, sorry, for those of you who don't know

there was a loophole with the,

I guess a compression ratio

where they interpreted the rules,

FIA rules were at a kind of,

I guess a cold engine state.

The compression shows 16 to one

which obviously produces less power

and actually during,

I guess the rest of engine heating up

and it actually expands

and the expansion causes an 18 to one compression ratio

which produces,

I think they were saying like 300th

or half a second per lap.

Yeah, which is insane

because 15 horsepower increase.

So don't quote me on the actual laptop time increase

that'll be, but it is around 15 horsepower

which is a huge advantage for sure.

But yeah.

I mean, F1 is a game of innovation, right?

And almost every time there's a big rule change

there's one team or two teams

that decide to creatively interpret the rules.

And if the FIA sets out a rule

that says testing's done when an engine's cold

then a team can do what it will when the engine's hot.

And as long as you don't change the engine

from what they call Park Fermi to the race,

the point in time where you can't touch the car

to a race.

And as long as the same parts are there

whatever happens happens

and until the FIA change

how they're gonna police that

and test with a hot engine or test the difference

they're compliant as far as the letter of the laws.

And so we'll see.

I mean, every rule,

every time there's a rule change

a team finds something no one else does.

Back in the days when Mercedes had their,

I believe it was called the DAS system

that allowed them to change steering angles

to, I think it was,

it was a force India that showed up with

the basically Mercedes clone.

People find ways to skirt the rules

and that's really the innovation of F1

and it's why it's more interesting

than some of the other sports

because it's a game of progression

and if you start with a phenomenal car

and you progress it well,

you're gonna be at the top of the field

and if you start with a tractor

and you can't progress it,

you're gonna be at the bottom of the field

and we'll see where it goes

because that rocket chip's gotta be reliable

and we don't know what's gonna happen

until these cars.

That's the thing.

I think you kind of nailed a solid point,

that Garrett, is it gonna be reliable?

Cause it can only use in a certain amount of engines.

Because for a year and Ferrari's banking on,

Ferrari's banking on old faithful,

I think as far as I understand,

they're running an engine that they think

is gonna be tough or more reliable

with beefier components

and Red Bull and Mercedes are going glass cannon.

So, you know, we might see them six races ahead

in the points,

but they might start taking penalties later on

in the season to their engines and cannonballs.

Yeah, but what is it?

This speaks volumes to companies like,

I'm not gonna say Cadillac,

but like I would say Ferrari and Honda

who have been in the game for a very long time.

Like, what are, is their team doing that?

Like, you know, like Red Bull and, you know,

Red Bull and Mercedes like did, you know?

What are they not doing?

You know what I mean?

Like how are they being more innovative

and finding these loopholes?

You know what I mean?

These teams aren't new to this,

especially a team like Ferrari,

like especially a year like last year,

you think that, you know,

they put all their eggs into the 26 basket, right?

Yeah, I mean, again, you go to a rule book

and everyone reads it differently, right?

Like one person's going,

hey, I think this means that we can run beefier components

and someone else goes, what if we change the game?

What if we come with something no one else will?

And, you know, we don't know what it's gonna look like.

It's exciting though.

It's exciting.

That first race is gonna be a fucking gong show

and I can't wait for it.

But you know, what something that I've noticed

is that a team like Ferrari and also Honda,

I feel like they have a really strong sense of pride

with their engines and like their product

where they're like, you know, they're like, we're good.

We have this.

We know what we're doing, you know what I mean?

Like we're like, the innovation dies

when like there's a slight bit of ego

and pride associated with, I got this.

Like we've been doing this for a long time,

you know what I mean?

Do you sense that with those teams?

Yeah, like think back to, I mean,

we go to a movie like Rush, the old school F1 where,

oh shit, where Nicky Lauders goes to Ferrari

and they say, what do you think of the Ferrari?

He goes, it's a shit box.

Shit box, yeah.

You can't call it a shit box, it's a Ferrari.

It goes slow, it oversteers and understeers

in the corner.

Yeah, that's smart.

Right?

Like those teams are, we are Ferrari.

We are the best.

We are like the team that quite literally gets money

just for existing from the start

versus, you know, an energy drink company

who comes in with a chip on their shoulder,

buys a team for $1 and makes it a billion dollar company

and has a big chip on their shoulder

and throws up both little fingers and says, you know,

we're here, we're gonna be big and bad and mean

and we're gonna do it better than everybody else.

So, you know, there's one team running through

the chip on their shoulder and there's one team

settling in the fact that they're legacy

and we might see that in some of the innovation

that comes with it.

So, a fun question for you is,

do you know the top three teams that have won,

I think constructors, I believe the question was?

Who, Injo, engine suppliers, who would you think?

The top three engine suppliers that have won constructors?

Mercedes, Honda and Mercedes,

Honda and I'm not sure who's gonna be the third.

So, most people would say Ferrari has a third,

you know what I mean?

Like Ferrari, it's Mercedes, I believe, Ferrari and Ford.

Ford is the third, I believe.

So, just going back-

Ford's coming back as Red Bull sponsor this year,

even though it's Red Bull powertrains, you know,

they're going side by side with Ford and-

Yeah, which is something I found extremely fascinating,

like obviously you and I are very new,

but in the past, Ford has had a strong history

in F1, strong influence and a lot of success,

a lot of success.

So, it's cool to see that innovation

that they're bringing back and honestly like,

I'm excited to see what Red Bull and Ford have produced

cause I know Red Bull does want a lot more,

I guess say, and control over the engine

and you know, they're willing to

work with Red Bull a lot more.

So, it's cool to see that happening.

Yeah, moving away from Honda this year.

We'll see, maybe they're going to make a rocket ship Ford.

We don't know.

Yeah.

So, there's some big things coming up this month.

We're in January right now

and that means the start of the process

for unveiling these cars.

We know Red Bull and the racing bulls are up first.

We wonder, are they going to show up with,

you know, the 2025 car with the same livery?

Are they going to drop a 2026 car?

Are they going to change it from, you know,

this logo to this logo with a white border around it?

What's going to change?

You know, the joke is that it's going to be a copy

and paste the same thing for the next 10 years,

but you know, there's rumors.

There's rumors that they might be dropping the real thing.

The real car?

There's rumors.

Oh man.

Like they're probably unsubstantiated rumors,

but there's rumors and we can help out.

What do you think about their,

so explain to me, have you seen the car drops

in the presentations before?

Oh yeah.

Yeah, so basically, you know, it's their opportunity

to hype up, you know, the next season

to come to the table with something brand new

and to really have some shock and awe

while, you know, having a dinner for their sponsors.

And from 2021 to 2025, Red Bull shown up

with the exact same car, with the exact same livery.

No way.

Maybe a dot of white on the bottom corner

and say it's completely different.

And so they've caught a lot of flak

for the last five years of Control C, Control V,

but you know, there's an opportunity for them

new year, new regulations to put something cool on paper.

Don't they have to?

Because technically, I think there's a new change

in the regulations where a certain amount of the cars

does have to be covered by paint and sponsor stickers.

So I think they might have to-

Their logos have always,

their logos have always covered most of the car.

They haven't run like a black car

with a Red Bull word on the side.

Yeah, yeah.

But the big question will be

because what a lot of car,

what a lot of manufacturers do in the new regulation

is they'll take the FIA's demo car

and they'll just put it up

and they'll slap a logo down the side.

And then they'll make you wait.

Okay.

And so you're looking at it and going,

oh man, it's new, it's new.

Oh, it's the FIA's car,

just with a Red Bull on the side of it.

What a tease.

Right?

You get all excited and then it's a big tease.

But other teams, they dropped the real thing.

I think it was 2021.

A lot of teams dropped a very similar car

and then Ferrari and Mercedes

dropped something completely different.

And so, you know, new regulations,

new opportunities.

We're not really sure who's going to drop what,

but it could be a tease.

Could be incredibly exciting.

We wait to see.

Yeah, this is starting to feel like a game of poker.

Like which team is confident?

Which team is bluffing?

Which team is like, you know, showing all their cards?

Like, you know what I mean?

Like if it just feels like

how they're going to present this

is going to show us a lot.

Like if they don't bring in the car,

are they ready?

Are they having issues?

Like, or are they,

do they not want to show the people

what the car is?

Do they not want to reveal it?

Like, are they being super secretive

about they might be, you know, ahead?

You know, because what can you see on a car

when they're doing the presentation?

Probably just the arrow.

Probably just the arrow dynamics.

You can't really see much more than that, can you?

You can see the arrow.

The big thing though is, you know,

if someone's put a little leaflet somewhere,

if someone's put, you know,

a little way to trap the air

against the body of the car

or something that no one else thought about.

You know, if they're dropping that

a month before the test,

that gives other teams a chance.

It gives them a silver of hope

to try to do something themselves.

And you look back to 2022,

Mercedes comes in with a zero pod concept.

Like everyone else has these big ass side pods

that are meant to cut all the air around it.

Mercedes shows up with nothing.

And you're sitting there going, oh shit,

did they get it or did they miss?

Like is this going to be a rocket ship

or is it going to spin off the track?

Yeah.

Every other car, again,

big undercuts tight to the body,

you get Ferrari big bumpers out the side.

You're like, yeah, fuck.

There's three designs.

80% of the grid went with design one.

There's design two ends of design three.

Did everyone miss?

Did everyone hit?

We're not going to know.

But, you know, if you drop that full car on day one,

gives other teams time to catch up.

Yeah.

With Red Bull batting early in the order,

you know, I wouldn't be shocked

if they put a car that had some weird shit on it

just to throw people off the case.

Oh, for sure.

Damn, I didn't even think about that.

These are some mind games really early on into the season.

Shit.

Yeah, man.

The car drops get interesting

because this is someone's initial interpretation

of the rules, right?

Like you can basically,

I'm assuming there's some amount of, you know,

truth and reality to what they have to show up with.

But if you show up with a pretty blank car

and start adding parts to it

or different engine covers

or different ways to follow the air

and you show up with them on track day

and blow everyone's mind.

Yeah.

But that's what we're looking at

for the next, you know, four to six weeks here.

And what's the gap between Bahrain and the first race?

Like, I think that's a good question.

I think that's a good question.

I want to say it's like,

it's not a lot of time

as far as F1 is concerned.

It's like a couple of weeks.

Is it?

Okay.

Yeah, we got to look into that

because I feel like that would,

because you get, I mean,

testing is going to pretty much bring everything

to the table.

And there are some rumors that like teams

are not going to participate in testing,

but that's not allowed, is it?

You have to participate in testing.

Pretty sure you have to participate in testing,

but, you know,

you can still make changes to your car thereafter.

Let's look that up when Bahrain test versus first.

So it's February 11th to the 13th

and 18th to the 20th.

And I believe the cars are dropping

till the end of January.

So you're right.

It's around two weeks.

So two weeks is probably not enough

because they've probably got to get everything out there,

set up there.

I mean, like it's a huge, huge project

getting the cars even out there

and set up for testing.

You know what I mean?

So the stuff, they're not Amazon Prime.

They're not shipping price around the world overnight.

They're putting stuff on boats

and sending it out to different tracks ahead of time.

So, yeah, upgrades aren't built in the day.

Cars don't just show up.

These are millions and millions of dollars worth of R&D

and shipping and all this stuff.

But it leads to some excitement.

And, you know, the biggest thing that we can do

ahead of all of that dropping

is to make some completely unsubstantiated predictions

without even seeing the cars.

So I'm going to throw it your way first.

We're going to make some early predictions

about who we think is going to, you know,

be the biggest, be the biggest upset of the year.

We're going to look to see who we think is going to be

the star, who's going to flop.

And then, you know, some early predictions

for who we think is going to win it as a team

and which driver is going to reign supreme.

Okay. So what should we start off with?

Should we start off with like WDC, like top three?

Who do we think?

Well, let's go, let's go World Drivers Championship first.

You throw your predictions down, I'll throw mine down.

Okay. So World Drivers, I, it's a good one.

I didn't even think that far ahead.

I want to say,

I want, my heart says Fernando, my heart says Fernando Alonso.

But right off the bat, like the first name

that keeps popping up in my head is George Russell.

Like Mercedes, George Russell.

Like I think it's going to be, you know,

between him and Max again, like the engines, you know,

coming up and you know, like it's, it's,

it's hard to say anyone but Max right now,

but I just want to stir the pot right now

because it's, it's pre predictions.

We haven't seen anything.

So you've got Nando from Max and George.

Yes. So I got, I know. Yeah.

So I'm going to say George, Max,

and I'm going to, for the love of Fernando,

I'm going to say he, Honda pull through

with a fucking rocket for him.

So.

We can hope for, we can hope for the oldest rookie

in the grid.

100%.

All right. I'm going Max because I have to.

And I think he's got it, especially with the new

regulations from Oscar, Piazza and second

from George Russell and third,

I think Lando is coming in fifth or sixth.

I don't think he's got it to defend his title.

You know what?

Everyone's been kind of like on the same vibe.

Amen. His, his dad said,

you never remember the person who came second

and he won the driver of the year.

So yeah, we also know that, you know,

a mighty big statistic year to year

about who's going to win the driver's championship

is who wins Abu Dhabi in the final race of the year.

Well, Max took that race by a fucking landslide.

Yeah.

My prediction is he takes that the next year

by a landslide as well.

It's going to be 2022 all over again.

I'm going to, I'm going to throw that unsubstantiated

prediction that he's going, he's going 20 for 23 this year.

So you said, sorry, Max, Oscar and.

And George.

Yeah.

Something, but I don't know man, something about George.

Like, I feel like he's just been building up,

building up.

On his shoulder.

For sure.

Like turned in on him at this point

that he's ready to get a win out of it.

Bro, like he's the one guy who does not give a shit about Max.

Like, and I respect that about him.

You know what I mean?

Like he'll throw down with Max.

Oscar will drive it around the side of Max.

Like they're the two dudes thrown down.

So yeah, they're the two that aren't going to get rattled

by it and hopefully there's a few less papaya rules

to get in that, get an Oscars way this year.

Yeah, I agree.

And what do you think about the constructors?

We've got Isaac Hadger and Max for stopping in a Red Bull,

but I think Mercedes has taken it.

Yeah.

It's either Mercedes or McLaren.

I don't know which yet.

It'll depend on whether Mercedes gives McLaren

the right engine or if they tuned down

the compression ratio a little bit.

You got two drivers with a little bit more experience

in the McLaren.

You've got a clear number one, number two at Mercedes.

You've got a clear number one, number two at Red Bull.

Isaac's either going to have a stonk in season

or it's going to be a build year for him,

but I can't say I'm going to bet on him yet.

I'm thinking McLaren and Mercedes is going to pull through.

I think I could say confidently he's going to do

slightly better than Yuki.

We can hope.

But the love of my sanity.

Yeah.

I would love to cheer for Red Bull racing,

not Max for stopping racing.

100%.

I completely agree with you.

But is that something that engine manufacturers can do

is change the actual engine setup for other teams?

I have absolutely no clue.

I'm just like, growing.

I'm like, they found a big loophole.

And I think as someone purchasing the engine,

I'd be like, hey, man, I heard you guys

have a couple less horsepower than the stats that we bought.

We did a compression test.

It doesn't look so positive compared to what you guys

might have.

It's like 15 to 1.

How does yours do 18 to 1?

How is it even worse than the other cars?

So yeah.

I don't think you can.

But one can hope that there's a way

that they can bend the metal to only work under their configuration.

I mean, if anything says anything about engines

and their customer engines is McLaren.

So they beat Mercedes with a Mercedes engine.

And that says a lot.

So we'll see how it goes.

We talked about who we think is going to win the drivers,

the world.

Who we think is going to surprise us this year.

And then, last and unfortunately least,

who do you think is going to disappoint the hell out

of us this year?

Yeah, like, honestly, like, biggest surprise.

Obviously, Aston Martin.

Like, I'm not going to put that down

because that's not going to be a surprise.

They're going to do well.

But I want to say Williams.

I say.

I've got Carlos and Williams.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to say.

I think they're pulling P3, P4 and the championships.

They're up there for the constructors.

I might even say they're going to be Ferrari.

Like, that's what I mean.

P3, P4.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think signs might sneak in, you know, just, you know,

a win, maybe, you know, like you might just sneak one in,

you know, like I think.

Couple smooth operations.

Bro, he says that sometimes.

I'm like, bro, like, you got to let that go, man.

It's smooth operation, baby.

That's what we got.

He really is a smooth operator.

And like, honestly, like I'm very, very, very, very happy for him.

He's doing good, man.

He's doing good.

Who do you think's flopping?

Well, I'm going to say the complete polar opposite

of Carlos signs, which is Lewis Hamilton.

Oh, my God.

It's funny how those two kind of fit right in there.

Yeah, you think it's going to be another flop for Lewis?

Man, there is this stat.

He switched teams three times in the last, you know,

whatever 10 or 20 years, and he switched teams.

First season's gone poorly.

Second season, he's won the World Drivers Championship.

Now, I don't think it's happening this year.

I don't.

But, you know, so far it's happened twice.

Third time's the charm.

We'll see.

Who do I think's flopping this year?

I think we're going to see the biggest discrepancy

between teammates.

And I'm throwing this out here purely because I got to root

for, you know, the other part of the 2021 team.

I think we're seeing the biggest disparity between teammates

in Chaco and Bataz.

Oh, interesting.

I'm throwing it out there.

Again, unsubstantiated.

I love Valtteri.

Yeah.

It's so funny.

But I'm for, you know, for a deep down part of me

that's hoping for Chaco after Red Bull did him dirty.

I'm thinking Chaco drives the brakes off that Cadillac

and makes a fucking name for himself this season.

Chaco has so much to prove.

Like he is like a God in Mexico.

Like he is like super popular.

He's so rich.

He's so like established.

Like I feel like he has like the pressure of his entire nation

like behind him, you know, like where he has.

He has exactly this point that you just said to prove.

And it's a lot.

And I think he's coming in.

Yeah, like you said, like guns blazing

based off of his interview that he did, you know?

Like he was dirty by Red Bull a little bit.

You know, he was made to play second fiddle.

He did it beautifully in 2021.

He brought that World Drivers Championship home for Max.

But it's hard to play in a team where, you know,

you're clearly the number two and where everything

goes to the number one guy.

So now that he's in a team where there is no clear number

one, number two yet at this point,

there's going to be two dudes throwing down

for the chance to keep their career going in F1.

And, you know, I think it's going to be a bit guns blazing,

especially with Cadillac.

They're here as the new American team.

They're looking to make a name for themselves.

And they're going to have the heart of Mexico

behind Chaco Pérez.

For sure.

Too bad they got a Ferrari engine.

You know, I didn't say they were going to be the front

and the back, but, you know, maybe six and 12th

or something, but we'll see.

Well, good news is they're going to be coming in

with an engine soon.

So I think Cadillac is working on their engine.

I think they're giving themselves two to three years

to come up with it.

So that's good.

But yeah, let's see how Chaco does.

I'm excited to have him back.

And I think he's a very, very talented person

to be on the grid and he's going to cause, not cause,

but he's going to be a source of a lot of entertainment

for us.

I think so.

So what's the next little bit going to look like

as we get towards the season?

We got a bunch of cars dropping here over the next month.

We're going to be able to, you know,

we're going to do these episodes weekly.

We're going to give ourselves a chance to review what's dropping,

what the rumor mills saying, what these cars look like,

and who we think, you know, duped into field early on

versus who we think is dropping the real thing.

Next couple of weeks, you know, we're going to be covering

the cars as they drop.

We've got Red Bull and Racing Bulls up.

We've got, what's coming after that?

We've got a couple of other big suppliers.

And then there'll be another break, another week,

where you guys have to wait before you get to hear

how excited we are for the other cars to drop.

Yeah, we got Haas, Cadillac, Red Bull coming up.

And honestly, I can't really think what's happening

after that, but those are the three

that we have to talk about from this week.

I think they're dropping tomorrow.

Red Bull is dropping drop tomorrow.

So I'm excited.

I'm excited to see what that's all about.

Where do you watch that?

Each team has like a live stream.

Oh, just like on Instagram?

I don't know if it's on Instagram,

but if you look up like Red Bull car launch,

there'll be a live stream link to it

and people can tune in there.

And then you'll catch it on Instagram

about 10 minutes after it drops with a thousand posts

about it with everyone who's as aerodynamically

inept as us saying, look at that weird fin.

That's clearly going to do this.

And you'll still have no idea what the fuck

any of it means.

And then the cars will hit the track

and we'll really see.

But the first couple of weeks are really about seeing

who's showing up with something completely different

than everyone else.

Whose car looks pretty as hell

and who brought a car that looks like it was drawn

by a six year old with crayons.

We should show them the picture of the car he drew.

Yeah, exactly.

You can throw, you can post that up here,

show people how good my art is and why I am a doctor,

not a aerodynamic analyzer, not an engineer.

And I'm not driving, building these cars myself

because it certainly didn't look aerodynamic,

certainly didn't look fast, barely even look like a car.

Hey, you drew it, you signed it.

This podcast is going to pop off

and that's going to be worth a lot of money one day.

One day.

And until one day, we'll leave these guys with this,

the first episode of the Cool Down Lap podcast

with your host Garrett Joggy.

And we're just excited to see you guys next week

and to keep cover in this season.

Is it all unfolds through a year?

New rep opportunities,

hell with a lot of excitement to follow along the way.

Be sure to like, subscribe on YouTube.

We're going to be on Spotify, Apple Music.

Let us know how we did and we'll get you more content.

So yeah, we'll see you next week.

Introductions, 2026 F1 Regulations and Predictions - Episode 1 - The Cooldown Lap

About this episode

Formula 1

Red Bull

Aston Martin

Max Verstappen

F1

F1 TV

Canadian Grand Prix

ground effect

DRS

power units

boost feature

Audi

AI

engine sound

Mercedes

Honda

internal combustion engine

drag reduction systems

aerodynamics

MGUH unit

manual override

horsepower

Cadillac

FIA

compression ratio

F1 innovation

Park Fermi

DAS system

livery

zero pod concept

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