Have F1's new-for-2026 regulations made the sport too complicated?

BAHRAIN — Formula 1‘s new generation of cars haven’t completed a competitive lap yet but have already been singled out for criticism by the sport’s star drivers.

F1’s careful messaging around its brand-new cars was shattered a week into the first official preseason test this month. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said they’re so complicated “you need a degree to fully understand it all.” Four-time world champion Max Verstappen likened them to all-electric series Formula E “on steroids.” Verstappen has doubled down on those comments this week.

The criticism has extended beyond the two 2021 title rivals. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso suggested the energy management required in the new cars — which feature a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power — makes it so easy to drive through certain corners that members of the media or Aston Martin’s chef could do it without issue. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has raised concerns over how difficult it will be to overtake. New world champion Lando Norris had initially defended the new cars during the first week of testing, only to bizarrely step back from that on Thursday by saying he defended the new cars only to see what other people said about him taking the contrary view, saying they do not offer a pure racing experience.

It’s been an awkward prologue to what Formula 1 was hoping would be a glorious new era. F1’s 2026 machines feature sweeping changes to the aerodynamic designs of the car and on the engine side. Visually, the result has been spectacular, with cars looking much closer in design to the mid-2000s, with a lot of the complex aerodynamics of more recent times stripped away in a bid to create more opportunities for wheel-to-wheel racing.

It is the technology underneath the impressive new bodywork that is at the root of the broadsides being leveled at the new cars this month. The complexity of F1’s new formula has dominated the talk around preseason so far, with Hamilton’s quote grabbing attention during the opening week in Bahrain.

“None of the fans are going to understand it, I don’t think,” the Ferrari driver said. “It’s ridiculously complex. I sat in a meeting the other day and they’re taking us through it. It’s like you need a degree to fully understand it all.”

F1’s new power units — the F1 paddock word for engines with a hybrid element to them — are an unprecedented step for motor racing’s premier series. The 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power has placed a huge amount of focus on energy management and the regeneration of batteries throughout a lap. Two new battery-based power modes now exist: Overtake mode, which replaces the drag reduction system (DRS) as a pure overtaking aid available to drivers within a second of the car in front, and the separate boost mode, which can be used at a driver’s discretion around the lap.

The move toward a perfect split between power outputs not only has added to the list of things required from a driver inside the car but also has added new and bizarre words to F1’s lexicon.

Alonso’s quote about the Aston chef being able to drive through Bahrain’s Turn 12 referred to the way cars now harvest energy through braking, meaning many drivers are coming through corners much slower in a bid to ensure they have fully replenished batteries to attack down the straight. Those same electric elements have given rise to new phenomena such as “super clipping,” which is set to become a talking point over the first races. That phrase refers to a bizarre effect of hybrid engines — in some instances, when a driver is at full throttle, the component of the engine that manages the recovery of kinetic energy around the lap essentially steps in to run the power unit. That effectively works against the existing power and means the car’s speed drops despite the accelerator pedal being pushed firmly to the floor.

Super clipping is one of a number of odd and very technical talking points that have dominated the buildup to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, set to take place at Melbourne’s Albert Park on March 8. Hamilton has not been the only one left baffled by meetings. ESPN has been told by several prominent figures in broadcasting that they have sat through lengthy presentations about the new cars that have left even the most experienced members of the media scratching their heads.

Verstappen, who has long said his own involvement in Formula 1 will be dictated by how much he enjoys racing this particular generation of cars, doubled down on his initial Formula E comparison this week, saying he would remove the electrical elements entirely.

“I want us to actually stay away from that and be Formula 1,” he said. “So don’t increase the battery, actually get rid of that and focus on a nice engine and have Formula E as Formula E, because that’s what they are about. I’m sure that with the new car, from what I’ve seen and talked to some of my friends in there, that’s going to be also a really cool car. But let them be Formula E. We should stay Formula 1, and let’s try not to mix that.”

F1 and the FIA are also trialling a tweak to the start procedure to combat safety concerns caused by how much longer it takes for the turbocharged gasoline engines to spin up to speed enough to move from a standing position. A new five-second pause is likely to be added to the usual start moment on the grid before the standard five lights come on one at a time.

Rule tweaks might not be limited to the start either. Teams, F1 and the FIA are in dialogue about whether to change the amount of electrical deployment available to each individual driver to combat many of the lingering concerns about the new vehicles.

With criticism of F1’s new cars mounting, series CEO Stefano Domenicali spoke to the media on Thursday in a Teams call that lasted nearly a full hour. “Stay calm” was the overriding message from the former Ferrari boss.

“I don’t feel this anxiety; we need to stay calm,” Domenicali said. “As always when there is something happening as a new regulation, there’s always the doubt that everything is wrong. I remember [the same] in 2014, I remember in 2020, I remember in 2021. As always, F1 as a system has always been proving that the technical solutions have always helped the team to be fast and the drivers to be the best, so I’m totally positive for that.”

Domenicali spent a lot of this week talking to drivers about their concerns. F1’s CEO assured the media that he was confident Verstappen will not be encouraged to quit for good by the cars, even though the Dutchman has labelled them “anti-racing.”

“I guarantee to you that Max wants [to stay] and does care about Formula 1 more than anyone else,” Domenicali said. “He has a way of putting the point that he wants to say in a certain way. But we had a very constructive meeting, and he will have a very constructive meeting also with the federation and the teams to highlight what are his points of view of what he believes needs to be done to keep the driving style at the center, without changing, let’s say, the approach.”

Changes are still possible. F1, the governing FIA, the teams and the manufacturers are in an open dialogue about what tweaks might be made ahead of and after the Australian Grand Prix to roll back some of the scarier elements of the new rules. How much this helps solve the concerns of Verstappen and his rivals remains to be seen.

Domenicali finished off his call with a final battle cry: “Don’t be worried about the energy management. We’re going to solve that … if we need to solve it, by the way.”

How did F1 get to this point?

It does seem as though F1 was braced for a negative reception from the get-go.

The first testing opportunity for the teams was January’s unofficial shakedown event in Barcelona, where media and fans were barred from attending. F1 said the teams had specifically requested both the additional test and that it be private, but F1 also strictly limited the content teams could put out to the public at those events. Controlling the narrative appeared to be the name of the game at the start of the year, but the comments from drivers as influential as Hamilton and Verstappen blew that out of the water the first moment either of them faced the media after driving the cars.

There is logic behind the move towards the 50-50 split.

The new rules, a clear move towards road-relevant technology, were vital in luring the likes of Audi into the sport as a full engine-building manufacturer. The electrification of the regulations also convinced Honda to reverse the decision made in 2021 to leave the sport. Ford has also ramped up its involvement in Red Bull’s new engine project, while General Motors has committed to building its own engines for the new Cadillac team by 2028 or 2029. So on paper, an undeniable and instant win.

The overall health of Formula 1 has often been judged on how many different manufacturers are taking part, but it is also true that the road car industry is moving further and further away from the loud combustion engines of old. To many who yearn for a return to the screaming V12 or V10 engines of decades past, the mounting criticisms of F1’s latest formula only vindicate their suggestion — the same one put forward by Verstappen — that the sport should move away from, not toward, trends of the automotive industry.

Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds last week seized on Verstappen’s mention of his series to invite the Dutchman to test one of their cars. Dodds also suggested that F1’s biggest problem in arriving at this point has been that the rules are effectively stuck halfway between two extremes.

“I think Max and Lewis and these guys have been quite open in their concern for what happens when you’re effectively compromising the technology, keeping combustion technology, adding powertrain technology and not choosing a pathway,” Dodds told ESPN.

This is a fair viewpoint: F1’s new rules feel a little like a hodgepodge between two extremes. The FIA’s head of single-seater racing, Nikolas Tombazis, hinted at how tricky the push toward electrification has been in terms of keeping everyone happy with every new rules change in F1.

“We need to, I think, always remember that the sport has a lot of stakeholders and drivers, of course, who are extremely important,” Tombazis told ESPN and selected media on Thursday when asked about Verstappen’s suggestion the sport should ditch electrification altogether. “Drivers are the stars, but we have to also remember that the sport attracts big motor manufacturers like Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Cadillac, General Motors and so on, and they all have reasons they want to be in the sport.

“And when these regulations were discussed, they were absolutely very adamant on these parameters. And now … life would be easier for everybody if we just had one engine and didn’t have to worry about all of that. I’m not in any way denying that.”

The FIA is looking into whether it is possible to tweak the levels of energy deployment required, hoping to reduce things such as super clipping. This will not be the work of a moment, though. F1 has embarked on a five-year regulation cycle, and there is a clear desire on the side of the governing body not to make any knee-jerk reactions until there is a good sample of actual racing to make decisions on.

How bad will the racing actually be?

Several sources on the F1 and FIA side of things made a similar (and fair) point to ESPN when urging caution on the new formula: All of this is happening during preseason. The clue is in the name: testing. The increased exposure given to preseason testing in recent years has only fueled the negativity around the cars beyond what would have been the case a decade or so ago.

It wasn’t that long ago that testing took place in front of a handful of media, but it has now become a fully broadcasted event with drivers speaking to TV and written press on multiple occasions in a short cycle. An obvious consequence of the Drive to Survive era we now live in is that drivers and team bosses alike have risen to unprecedented levels of fame by speaking freely and, at times, controversially.

It would be rare in other sports for media and fans to spend hours and days criticizing a penalty miss seen in training or an interception thrown in practice. Should those things continue into competitive action, the criticism becomes more warranted.

Formula 1 has also always been one of the most complicated sports around, and it has often found that innovation and progress have come fast when problems have arisen in the past. Similar negativity surrounded the introduction of the “halo” cockpit device in 2017, to cite one recent example, but fans now look at it without a second glance.

F1’s new rules certainly are complicated and the early driver criticisms seem to be valid, but until the grid lines up for the Australian Grand Prix, it’s impossible to know exactly whether they are simply difficult to digest initially or perhaps the criticisms laid out this month have been valid.