If there may be one lesson the period of turbo-hybrid Formulation 1 vehicles has taught us, it’s how vital and complicated the position of the circulation meter is. Limiting the quantity of gas the vehicles may carry, in addition to its circulation price, pressured producers to innovate to enhance combustion effectivity – making this instrument the very important enforcer of these limits.
From 2026, with the arrival of recent energy models with a distinct cut up {of electrical} and inner combustion energy, this part will endure a profound evolution – not solely in how measurements are taken but additionally when it comes to the provider.
After years during which Sentronics outfitted each automobile with two circulation meters – one for the groups and one encrypted for the FIA – the provision will move to Allengra, the corporate that gained the tender for the brand new technical cycle. This can be a accountability of the very best order, as a result of a few of the most delicate parameters in Formulation 1 move by the circulation meter – particularly in gentle of the controversies in 2019, which prompted the FIA to specify a second meter for each automobile.
Exactly for that reason, a extra superior and useful unit was wanted. Among the many key developments has been the consolidation of the 2 separate meters – one devoted to the groups and the opposite one encrypted and solely accessible by the FIA – inside one system in a suitably compact type issue.
Why the brand new circulation meter is considerably extra superior
“One may say they’re like two models in a single. A significant benefit is that the pipes have a distinct geometry, which makes it mechanically troublesome to synchronise them completely on the identical on the spot, even when utilizing the identical measurement frequency,” says Niels Junker, co-CEO of Allengra, talking completely to Autosport.
Picture by: Erik Junius
“Nonetheless, we use completely different measurement frequencies on the 2 pipes, mixed with anti-aliasing features, so the groups can not synchronise with the frequency.”
This structure makes it way more difficult for groups to avoid the aim of the circulation meters. The 2 pipes by which the gas circulation runs have completely different geometries, offering a primary degree of safety that makes it mechanically troublesome for groups to synchronise the measurements.
Added to this can be a second degree: every pipe makes use of its personal measurement frequency, additional protected by anti-aliasing features that forestall any sign alignment.
The 2 models, the truth is, don’t monitor the circulation on the identical frequency, because it varies over time. This can be a essential facet: even when, hypothetically, a crew managed to synchronise with the frequency of its personal circulation meter, it couldn’t replicate that of the opposite unit, which stays encrypted and accessible solely to the FIA in actual time. The result’s a multi-level safety system designed to stop any makes an attempt to synchronise with or manipulate the recorded values.
A system that measures 6,000 occasions per second
The Allengra circulation meter operates between 4 and 6kHz, roughly 3 times sooner than present sensors. This implies the measurement course of is repeated as much as 6,000 occasions per second.
Flussometro F1 2026 di Allengra
Picture by: Allengra
Such a quick system can’t be calibrated with a standard Coriolis sensor – usually utilized by groups within the manufacturing unit – which operates at 300Hz. Because of this, Allengra has developed its personal in-house 20kHz ultrasonic reference sensor, able to validating the measurements obtained.
The system has already been validated by a number of on-track checks in 2025. Inside the coronary heart of the unit is actually a flattened “U”-shaped construction: the gas enters from one aspect, follows a predefined path, and exits from the opposite.
Alongside this path, two opposing ultrasonic transducers are positioned, exchanging a sign. The “time of flight” the sign takes to journey by the system and attain the opposite transducer is the important thing parameter: below static circumstances, the system has all the required parameters to find out how lengthy this journey ought to take.
Nonetheless, when the gas flows by the system, the scenario adjustments: the circulation accelerates the sign within the path of journey, like a ship being carried by the waves – and slows it down in the wrong way when it is shifting towards the present, because it have been. By measuring the distinction between the 2 transit occasions and figuring out the gap between the transducers, the system is ready to exactly decide the rate of the fluid.
From this, figuring out the interior diameter of the pipe, the volumetric circulation price is obtained. However the system does not cease at quantity, which might differ with temperature and working circumstances. Because of this, mass is measured as an alternative.
By a selected calibration for every sort of gas, which takes under consideration elements such because the fluid’s density and the pace of sound inside it, the circulation meter derives the mass circulation price, the regulatory parameter expressed in kilograms per hour. In 2026 this restrict will drop to only over 70 kg/h, decreasing gas consumption.
This gas flow-rate determine is prime, nevertheless it represents only one facet of how the circulation meter will contribute from this season onwards. The Allengra sensor will proceed to measure mass circulation, but additionally monitor an extra management parameter on the behest of the FIA.
Power worth turns into the important thing parameter
From 2026, the Federation can even confirm the power circulation price of the gas fed into the engine. The traits of every gas and its respective power values per unit of mass will likely be licensed by a 3rd, unbiased physique earlier than arriving on the monitor. This implies there’ll not be only a circulation meter tasked with calculating mass circulation in kg/h, however a extra advanced system that can then measure the full power circulation of the gas.
In essence, the worth obtained from the circulation meter in kg/h will likely be transformed by the engine’s ECU (additionally a homologated part from a single provider) into gas power circulation utilizing the gas’s power density and decrease heating worth, licensed by a 3rd get together, based on procedures set out in an FIA doc particular to every gas. Total, the ultimate worth should not exceed 3000 MJ/h. For instance, under 10,500 rpm, the permitted power circulation should not exceed that calculated utilizing the method EF (MJ/h) = 0.27 × N (engine pace in rpm) + 165.
What does all this suggest? That, relying on the standard of the gas developed by every producer, variations could emerge within the mass circulation required to achieve the fastened restrict of 3000 MJ/h. In different phrases, the power content material of the gas will develop into a strategic variable: if a gas is extra energy-dense, a smaller mass will likely be wanted to attain the identical power circulation.
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
This additionally interprets into a possible benefit when it comes to on-board weight. A producer that succeeds in creating a gas with larger power density will be capable of carry fewer kilograms of gas whereas nonetheless supplying the engine with the identical required quantity of power.
This is likely one of the many the explanation why a improvement race is brewing between the gas suppliers. But it surely’s solely the primary a part of the story…
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