F1 2026 - Round 3 - Japan - Suzuka 🇯🇵

We're seeing in fastest driver in the car that can best exploit the current rules and regulations, just like every other season 🤷

Anyway, Merc running away with things so far.

I think this fundamentally misses the issues with these regs. Performance management, whether it’s tyre, fuel management has always been part of the sport. And this has always been an engineering sport. Where whoever games the system best, pretty much wins. But I don’t remember a time where the drivers had to actively drive so much slower to get faster laps. These cars are completely energy starved. What’s worse is the drivers can’t physically discern the parameters within the car to maximise lap time. Eg whether throttle response is 95 vs 96% to engage power delivery conditions in the software. There’s been some measures to address this in qualifying, but it’s an terrible spectacle for the sport. I’m convinced we’re going to see a whole lot less onboards with power delivery/live speeds this year.

I’ve watching F1 since 88, and this is the biggest load of BS I’ve seen in all that time.

NB surely the tire debacle and the non existant US Grand Prix was a bigger problem, no?

My attitude is that it's a new formula, and the racing has been good so far, so I'm optimistic that things will improve as tweaks are made to the rules, and teams converge in performance through development.

Maybe I'm getting a bit old, but I don't see the point in bitching and moaning constantly, or being yet another person saying something ridiculous like 'bring back V10's'.

Like most people, I'm not a huge fan of the new rules. I'm less of a fan of the constant moaning about it.

Not even remotely.

Quali was a fair reflection of the field this weekend.

no in-car footage again during quali, whereas in FP and you could really feel and hear the cars bog down long before 130R, through to the chicane.

They just need to find a way to make the reg’s feel less constraining - you can’t be lapping 2sec slower than last year and consider it the peak of motorsport.

indeed Bearman was 10th in quali last year with a 1:27:8. Pole today was 1:28:8.

whatever way you cut it the FIA know they’ve got a lot of work to do

I’m not sure it’s a pile of s**t, just yet anyway!, but I totally agree that it feels like driver bravery & mechanical grip are far less important in these cars, which is a big problem.

agree to disagree so. The tire debacle majorly set back F1 especially in the states. This isn’t remotely going to affect viewing numbers sponsorship etc. I suppose you could switch to another sport if you don’t like it anymore.

The new part is slowing down halfway through a straight and cruising round high speed corners

Any quick Google search shows f1 audience keeps increasing. The new engines might not please some but I highly doubt people turn away in droves.

Yes when it has to be done on every lap, even in qualifying.

With the new regs, we won't even get the great qualifying laps we've seen before, like Max last year at Suzuka. Laps where a driver goes flat out and gets everything perfect to put a car on pole will be a thing of the past.

It's not possible to go all out for even one single lap

More drivers pointing out, that if you push hard in the corners, you ultimately go slower.

How folks are fine or defending this is really beyond me. Fast corners are prime for charging the battery now, no longer can they push to the limit or they just lose out badly on the straights. As challenging F1 should be, it’s not a challenge to driver fast in a straight line. It never has been.

The race is probably not too much of an issue, they have to manage a lot with tires etc, but qualy is anaemic now. You see it now with the onboards purposely cutting away when the engine dies off…

^ this is what I want to see. Ragged edge, on the limit for one lap to put it all on the table.

I'll be interested to see what it's like at Silverstone, where most of the race is spent flat out