F1 | Australian GP: Red Bull goes extreme with super clipping, loses 50 km/h on the straight. Max Verstappen’s Red Bull uses extreme “super clipping” in the Australian GP.

The “super clipping” is in full display at the Australian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen’s Red Bull loses 50 km/h on the main straight. This alternative to lift-and-coast for battery recharge opens up entirely new scenarios in Formula 1. With the throttle wide open, the Dutch driver slows from 323 km/h down to just 275 km/h. The goal, clearly, is to recover the lost time in the remaining sections of the circuit.

We anticipated it in testing, and now Australia confirms it: the new power units are a real puzzle for the teams. In the early stages of this new generation of cars, we will see very different approaches among the grid teams. During Melbourne free practice, various tests were conducted, each with different energy management strategies to maximize lap time.

From a pure performance standpoint, Mercedes looks the strongest. Charles Leclerc even admitted that they are “much faster” than Ferrari in race pace. Much could still change over the weekend, but some teams are already showing “extreme” tactics for battery recharge. A prime example is Max Verstappen’s Red Bull using the so-called “super clipping.”

The extreme super clipping on Red Bull

Let’s start from the basics: with the new power distribution, the power units find an unprecedented balance between electric and thermal energy. The challenge becomes managing the battery and its recharge in order to fully exploit the MGU-K power during the lap. One way to optimize this process is the lift-and-coast technique, which this year is supposed to be a standard approach across the grid.

However, alternatives exist. One of these is “super clipping,” a practice that recharges the battery on full straights. The electric motor stops propelling the car and instead stores the energy generated by the internal combustion engine, sacrificing top speed. In Australia, this is clearly visible on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, where the Dutch driver loses nearly 50 km/h on the straight.

Red Bull’s adoption of “super clipping” in Melbourne highlights the steep learning curve teams are facing with the 2026 hybrid regulations, where sacrificing straight-line speed is becoming a legitimate tactical trade-off. As Max Verstappen and his engineers fine-tune this extreme energy recovery, the battle for the Australian Grand Prix will likely be won by the team that best solves the complex puzzle of when to push and when to harvest.