Formula One has bowed to driver pressure by signing off on nine immediate “refinements” to this season’s controversial new regulations, with further tweaks to be tested at next week’s race in Miami.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the changes go any way to appeasing fans unhappy with the sport’s direction of travel.
Formula One’s new 50-50 electric-hybrid era has proved hugely controversial in the two months of the season to date. The opening three races in Australia, China and Japan featured hundreds of overtakes.
Yet many felt the racing was artificial, with overtaking cheapened by the use of “boost” buttons and drivers constantly having to recharge their batteries to “harvest” energy, sometimes involuntarily.
Formula One had already indicated prior to the race in Suzuka that it would use the cancellation of rounds four and five in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia – because of the conflict in the Middle East – as an opportunity to review the regulations and look at possible tweaks.
A major crash involving British driver Ollie Bearman in Japan made changes inevitable. Drivers were incensed after the Briton had to take evasive action at 305km/h to avoid the Alpine of Argentine Franco Colapinto in Suzuka, slamming into the barriers with a force of 50G.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz accused governing body the FIA of ignoring repeated warnings that such a crash might occur because of the way the batteries harvest and deploy power. “Here we’re lucky there was an escape road,” the Spaniard added. “Now imagine going to Baku, or Singapore, or Vegas [all street circuits] and having these kinds of closing speeds next to the walls.”
Lando Norris, McLaren’s British world champion, had warned in Australia that drivers were going to “fly over fences and do a lot of damage” unless the FIA made changes.
A crunch meeting of Formula One’s stakeholders on Monday (local time) unanimously approved the changes, which are mainly aimed at increasing flat-out driving in qualifying – another bugbear of drivers and fans – while reducing the potential for the sorts of high closing speeds witnessed in the Bearman incident.
The FIA said discussions had been “collaborative”, adding that the changes would now be put to the World Motor Sport Council for final approval, which is expected to be a formality.
Earlier, Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, whose team are leading the championship, said the sport needed to take “a scalpel rather than a baseball bat” to the rules, admitting he was wary of teams trying to game the sport’s “catch-up” regulations on the new power units.
James Vowles, the Williams team principal, welcomed the changes on X. “These are sensible changes and the teams, FIA and Formula One have done good work over the past few weeks to agree them,” Vowles wrote.
“F1 has seen some great racing so far this year, but it is right that we always look at ways to keep improving. We look forward to seeing them in action from Miami onwards.”
It remains to be seen what four-time world champion Max Verstappen makes of the “refinements”. Red Bull’s Dutch driver has been scathing of the new era, arguing that Formula One has become “Formula E on steroids” and threatening to quit the sport unless major changes are implemented.
Formula One’s rulers were at pains to stress off the record that the tweaks agreed were part of a natural “bedding-in period”.
The sport has just introduced the biggest shake-up of the regulations in a generation, possibly of all time. So a period of adjustment was inevitable, they say.
In general, the message from the top, the one Formula One’s rulers desperately want to get out there – and it is one they insist is reflected in the fan surveys they constantly carry out – is that the 2026 changes are working and that they have, overall, had a positive impact on the sport. They back up that assertion with figures released last week from the first three races of 2026 suggesting both attendances and global television viewing figures are up from 2025.
That may be true. But it is equally true to say there is a lot riding on these “refinements” for Miami as they are calling them (“changes” sounds too much like a U-turn).
The outcry from a large swathe of Formula One’s fanbase – not to mention some drivers, Verstappen being the obvious example – to what we have seen so far in 2026, has definitely rocked the sport. Not only have there been questions about safety, which ramped up after Bearman’s crash in Japan, but – more fundamentally – about the sport’s general direction of travel.
This, then, is a first attempt to quell some of that outcry and to respond to some of the concerns raised.
The changes agreed on Monday are generally aimed at allowing drivers to push to the limit in qualifying, as well as reduce the risk of large speed differentials in races between cars deploying the full power of their engine and battery and those with no charge – a difference of 470bhp (brake horsepower, the true measure of engine output).
The changes agreed are as follows:
There will be a reduction in the maximum permitted recharge on a lap from 8 megajoules (MJ) to 7MJ. According to a statement from the FIA, this is aimed at “reducing excessive harvesting and encouraging more consistent flat-out driving”. In layman’s terms, this means drivers should not have to do so much “lifting and coasting” during qualifying – lifting off the accelerator for a few seconds before braking for a corner – because they will not need to recover so much energy.
Secondly, the maximum amount of power recovered when a driver is on full throttle but not deploying the battery – a phenomenon known as “super-clipping”, which causes the car to slow down as it harvests energy – has been increased to 350 kilowatts (kw), from the previous 250kw. The idea is to try to reduce the time spent super-clipping on a qualifying lap to around two to four seconds.
F1 also says it has increased from eight to 12 the number of circuits where an even lower energy limit than 7MJ may be applied for qualifying. These are the “energy-starved” tracks with long straights and relatively few corners, where energy recovery is most difficult.
The in-race changes are primarily aimed at avoiding the sorts of speed differentials which contributed to Bearman’s crash in Japan.
Firstly, the maximum power of a car’s “boost” mode will be capped at 150kw “or the car’s existing deployment level, if that is higher”.
Secondly, cars will only be allowed to deploy the full 350kw (470bhp) of electrical power in acceleration zones out of corners. They will be limited to 250kw at other parts of the lap.
Bearman, for instance, would only have been able to deploy 250kw in Suzuka rather than the 350kw he was using in his incident.
There have been a few specific tweaks made for wet conditions, including an increase in tyre blanket temperatures for intermediate tyres following driver feedback “in order to improve initial grip and tyre performance in wet conditions”. Additionally, “Maximum ERS [energy recovery system] deployment will be reduced, limiting torque and improving car control in low-grip conditions”, the FIA says, while the rear light systems have been simplified, with clearer and more consistent visual cues to improve visibility and reaction time for following drivers in poor conditions.
Finally, a number of tweaks to race starts will be trialled in Miami, following concerns that the power units this year are making starts a lot more varied, leading to some close calls. These will include a system which will automatically get cars identified as having abnormally low acceleration moving. There will also be additional flashing rear and lateral lights while changes will be trialled to prevent cars arriving at the grid with low battery levels.
Additionally to all of the above, it appears an engine trick being exploited by Mercedes and Red Bull, which enabled them to deploy extra electrical energy at the end of a flying lap, in exchange for their MGU-K, the car’s kinetic energy recovery system, being disabled for the next 60 seconds, may have been outlawed.