{"id":65033,"date":"2026-02-04T10:29:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/?p=65033"},"modified":"2026-02-04T10:29:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:29:45","slug":"russell-smoother-2026-cars-will-save-a-few-years-on-the-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/russell-smoother-2026-cars-will-save-a-few-years-on-the-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell: Smoother 2026 cars will &#8220;save a few years on the back&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>George Russell welcomed Formula 1&#8217;s smoother 2026 cars, claiming they will &#8220;save a few years on the back&#8221;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>From 2022, teams ran their cars low and stiff to maximise downforce from the ground effect Venturi tunnels that ran under the floor.<\/p>\n<p>As a consequence, some, notably Russell&#8217;s Mercedes team, struggled with porpoising, when the car would bounce violently at high speed.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65035\" src=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022.jpg\" alt=\"Russell, Mercedes, Imola 2022\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Russell-Merc-2022-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This triggered concerns by drivers about the long-term health of their backs, with Lewis Hamilton memorably struggling to exit his car following the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>For 2026, F1 has returned to flat floors, meaning increased rake, where the rear is higher than the front, and making life more comfortable for those behind the wheel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe car is feeling nice to drive,\u201d Russell admitted during last week&#8217;s Barcelona shakedown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo major issues, no porpoising \u2013 which is pretty good news for all of us, it will save us a few years on the back, so all in all a decent few days.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">No music. Just the W17 \ud83d\udd0a <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fQyxbf8viU\">pic.twitter.com\/fQyxbf8viU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MercedesAMGF1\/status\/2015902082243420644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This year also sees the introduction of new power units, with a significant increase in electrical power from a larger battery and revised MGU-K.<\/p>\n<p>During simulation runs, it was suggested that drivers might have to take extreme measures to save and harvest energy during a lap.<\/p>\n<p>But Russell&#8217;s first impressions appear to ease those fears.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way I would describe it is like if you\u2019re driving your car up a hill, you\u2019re still going flat out, but you\u2019re losing a bit of speed, and you may just downshift to give you a bit of extra revs to get up that hill,&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Also Read:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/hamilton-already-a-fan-of-more-enjoyable-2026-f1-car\/\"><strong>Hamilton already a fan of &#8220;more enjoyable&#8221; 2026 car\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/russell-impressed-as-2014-fears-eased-at-f1-test\/\">Russell &#8220;impressed&#8221; as 2014 fears ease at Barcelona test<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s how it sometimes feels when the engine is harvesting, and you\u2019re really regenerating the battery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo there are occasions that you can downshift at the end of the straight, even while you\u2019re flat out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But it felt more bizarre in the simulator than it did in reality, to be honest. I spoke with a few other drivers, and we actually commented on the same. So that was quite intuitive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes head into this year as the favourites, as new power unit regulations offer the opportunity of another 2014-style resurgence.<\/p>\n<p>Though the Brackley-based outfit completed the most laps in Spain, Russell is being coy about their chances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the power unit side, there\u2019s some impressive things from some of our competitors, and that\u2019s quite surprising to be honest,\u201d he noted, pointing at Ferrari and Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, we\u2019re three days into a 24-race season, so you don\u2019t want to [read] too much into that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I think a lot of people anticipated the new power unit suppliers to be sort of struggling and whatnot, and they\u2019ve had a good test as well. So that\u2019s good for them, but for us, time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe car so far has been working well, but it\u2019s not about how well it works, it\u2019s about how quick it goes around the track,&#8221; Russell added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don\u2019t really have an indication of that at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Russell welcomed Formula 1&#8217;s smoother 2026 cars, claiming they will &#8220;save a few years on the back&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[341,295,516,508],"class_list":{"0":"post-65033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-george-russell","11":"tag-mercedes"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65037,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65033\/revisions\/65037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}