Starting with a complicated test
It is now a matter of hours and the new Formula 1 season will finally begin. The crucial knot to untie, besides clearly what the hierarchies on track will be, remains understanding how well the top motor racing series can work and be attractive with the new regulations. The main point is, clearly, energy management, and the Australian track located inside the beautiful Albert Park in Melbourne is already a complicated testing ground for the new power units; let’s try to understand why with a simple representation. The underlying concept remains simple: braking zones and sections not driven at full throttle are all opportunities to recharge the battery pack, which is then discharged when full power is delivered. A fundamental parameter therefore becomes understanding not only how much time is spent at full throttle during the lap, but above all how long the sections are where one remains continuously at wide-open throttle.
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A look at what was seen in Bahrain to understand the difference
We have therefore created a map showing the full-throttle sections of the Sakhir track, where the tests took place, and of Melbourne, taking Lando Norris’s pole from last season as a reference for the latter. What emerges is immediately clear.
For Sakhir, we considered the best lap of this year’s tests, Leclerc’s on the last day, but for lovers of precision, we emphasize that we also verified with Piastri’s 2025 pole lap and found no substantial differences. The setup is clear: many sections driven at full throttle (considering full throttle as an accelerator above 95%) but continuously interspersed with heavy braking or technical sections (like the “snake” in the second sector). The result is that the longest continuous section driven at full throttle is the descent leading to the braking of turn 14, with 7.9 seconds driven at wide-open throttle. It should also be noted that the two sections on the main straight (before and after the finish line) clearly should not be added together for a single lap, but it helps to understand why during the tests the drivers did not exit the last corner already at wide-open throttle but waited until a few meters before the finish line to accelerate: they were trying to minimize the discharge time in that section of the track.
Melbourne is very different
If we now consider, instead, what happens in Melbourne, we first notice that the full-throttle sections cover a larger portion of the track compared to Bahrain, as calculations show it is in fact about 10% higher.
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But above all, we notice that the very long section from the exit of turn 8 to the fast chicane of turns 9 and 10 is about twice as long in terms of time compared to what happened at Sakhir, meaning the drivers must stay at wide-open throttle for about 15.5 seconds. Furthermore, the passage through the change of direction in turns 9 and 10 is at high speed, effectively not a real braking point, and therefore offers a very limited opportunity to recharge the battery. Immediately after, there is a further 6.8-second straight before a real braking point, turn 11, which finally allows for the use of regenerative braking to “fill up” on energy. It is clear that in this very long full-throttle section, the 4 Mega Joules of usable battery will be entirely consumed by the cars, and the drivers will find themselves having to manage straight-line speed with only the power of the internal combustion engine.
Super clipping, clipping “on steroids”
This is why we will talk about “super clipping”, which is nothing more than the clipping that has always existed since the introduction of Power Units, but so evident as to deserve the nickname “super”, with a loss of straight-line speed between the moment of maximum speed and the braking point at the end of the straight of even 40 km/h according to some teams. The debut therefore risks immediately exposing the critical issues of the new regulations and all eyes will be on the second sector to see what engineers and drivers will come up with to manage such a long continuous full-throttle section.
