On March 12 2026 01:37 pebble444 wrote: I don't understand why there is a general revolt against the current state of affairs; I for one found the race thrilling; now I understand that watching and driving is a completely different experience; so I get why some or even most drivers have a problem with deployment and having to brake in non natural places to recharge; But for those watching, isn't overtakes exactly what people wanted to see?
Was interesting enough the first 15 laps, ngl. Altough it's always in the back of my head that the only reason the overtakes happened at all is because of a bunch of gimmicks. The remaining 3/4 of the race was a real snooze fest, altough that was mainly due to the return of Ferrari Stategy
Still, not going to base any opinions off of a single race. And neither is F1. They claim they have some stuff they can change fairly quickly if they see the need for it after 3 races. I'm guessing they're going to turn up the turbo boost and rein in the electric motor output, to a 70-30 ratio rather than the 60-40 they have now, which should help keep the battery topped up without coasting everywhere
Overtakes are great if 2 drivers are fighting for a spot - not because half the field is without battery and are just sitting ducks. The next lap, situation is reversed and we're basically just racking up overtaking numbers for the stats.
A lot of talk is about the fake overtakes and the super clipping at the end of straights, and for good reason, but there's another problem with these regulations, an even bigger one, and it can't be solved because it's inherent to these PU's. The electric energy has to come from somewhere and it can't all come from braking, it has to come from the throttle as well. That's what the super clipping is, it's using the ICE as a generator. Even if they manage to prevent this super clipping at the end of the straights they still need to generate the energy in the corners, you know, where the actual racing takes place, where the greats are separated from the regular..
Lando said it best so far: "You're driving the power unit, you're not driving the car to the same limit. You're not going to go into Pouhon (Spa) and see who has the biggest balls.. You're just going to see who can lift at the correct point."
On March 12 2026 23:37 Penev wrote: A lot of talk is about the fake overtakes and the super clipping at the end of straights, and for good reason, but there's another problem with these regulations, an even bigger one, and it can't be solved because it's inherent to these PU's. The electric energy has to come from somewhere and it can't all come from braking, it has to come from the throttle as well. That's what the super clipping is, it's using the ICE as a generator. Even if they manage to prevent this super clipping at the end of the straights they still need to generate the energy in the corners, you know, where the actual racing takes place, where the greats are separated from the regular..
Lando said it best so far: "You're driving the power unit, you're not driving the car to the same limit. You're not going to go into Pouhon (Spa) and see who has the biggest balls.. You're just going to see who can lift at the correct point."
Yeah, this is what I was talking about above. FIA is looking into solutions to fix the clipping issues. They claim to have several options, but aren't going to do anything until at least 3 races in, to ensure they aren't jumping the gun. I think it's likely we'll see them down-adjust the output of the electric motors, and up-adjust the turbo pressure on the ICE motors
On March 12 2026 23:37 Penev wrote: A lot of talk is about the fake overtakes and the super clipping at the end of straights, and for good reason, but there's another problem with these regulations, an even bigger one, and it can't be solved because it's inherent to these PU's. The electric energy has to come from somewhere and it can't all come from braking, it has to come from the throttle as well. That's what the super clipping is, it's using the ICE as a generator. Even if they manage to prevent this super clipping at the end of the straights they still need to generate the energy in the corners, you know, where the actual racing takes place, where the greats are separated from the regular..
Lando said it best so far: "You're driving the power unit, you're not driving the car to the same limit. You're not going to go into Pouhon (Spa) and see who has the biggest balls.. You're just going to see who can lift at the correct point."
Yeah, this is what I was talking about above. FIA is looking into solutions to fix the clipping issues. They claim to have several options, but aren't going to do anything until at least 3 races in, to ensure they aren't jumping the gun. I think it's likely we'll see them down-adjust the output of the electric motors, and up-adjust the turbo pressure on the ICE motors
The thing is, FIA is looking into solutions for the clipping on the straights. With these regs there's always going to be energy generation in the corners. The straights problem can possibly be solved by limiting electrical output from the battery, making the cars slower overall of course, but if you'd stop energy generation by the ICE completely you'd be left with an underpowered car with a big battery that you barely use.
Oh my lord China is so much worse than Australia in terms of clipping. It's genuinely difficult to watch the onboards, hearing them coast half the track on qualy runs (where they're not even worried about keeping charge for the next lap).
Also Red Bull fell out of the top 4, on this track at least. Max is still half a second faster than his teammate but 1.7(!) behind the lead. Hopefully Ferrari and McLaren can do something but I doubt it.
On March 08 2026 21:05 Penev wrote: Well, that's the first race with the new regs done. It's fun that the Ferrari's start better than the rest, it made the opening act of the race interesting and I have to assume we'll be getting this dynamic in the next races as well so that is nice. I don't think that the outcome would've been different had the Ferrari's come in earlier under the VSC but it could've prevented the boring 1 stop of the top 4 perhaps.
It wasn't the worse race I've seen, mainly due to the first stint, but I'm not optimistic for this season. And of course qualifying is ruined by these regs.
Where does the optimism come from?
You have 2 cars one second faster than the rest. The potential engine shenenigans will only have a decision in the summer. Unless mercedes decides to pull a papaya and have the 2 drivers trade blows, the championship will be decided by then.
It might not be as bad as the first year of the Merc wins in the Ham/Ros days, but its bad enough that I don't think this season matters at all in terms of racing.
Watch people now claiming Russel is an out of this world driver.
What optimism? Read my post again, mainly the last sentence, and get some sleep Kobra.
Sorry i read "im optimist for this season" and was confused....and yes i was really needing sleep in those days! :D
I was really hoping this season would deliver and that quickly turned into absolute frustration because this is like my worst case scenario for F1.
On March 08 2026 21:05 Penev wrote: Well, that's the first race with the new regs done. It's fun that the Ferrari's start better than the rest, it made the opening act of the race interesting and I have to assume we'll be getting this dynamic in the next races as well so that is nice. I don't think that the outcome would've been different had the Ferrari's come in earlier under the VSC but it could've prevented the boring 1 stop of the top 4 perhaps.
It wasn't the worse race I've seen, mainly due to the first stint, but I'm not optimistic for this season. And of course qualifying is ruined by these regs.
Where does the optimism come from?
You have 2 cars one second faster than the rest. The potential engine shenenigans will only have a decision in the summer. Unless mercedes decides to pull a papaya and have the 2 drivers trade blows, the championship will be decided by then.
It might not be as bad as the first year of the Merc wins in the Ham/Ros days, but its bad enough that I don't think this season matters at all in terms of racing.
Watch people now claiming Russel is an out of this world driver.
What optimism? Read my post again, mainly the last sentence, and get some sleep Kobra.
Sorry i read "im optimist for this season" and was confused....and yes i was really needing sleep in those days! :D
I was really hoping this season would deliver and that quickly turned into absolute frustration because this is like my worst case scenario for F1.
Ooh no worries. But yeah, it's horrible. It sucks that 1 team is clearly the best but that's not even the worst of it. The sport is ruined with these regulations imo.They cannot fix this because a big part of these regs is that the ICE functions as a generator to be able to fill these batteries to a significant enough level. This generating has to happen somewhere on the track obviously so there's always going to be moments where the cars are going to be slow, it's unavoidable. Therefore qualifying especially is ruined because how is qualifying interesting if we don't see cars going as fast is possible through the corners?
So even if they fix the super clipping at the end of the straights, which I already doubt is possible for all tracks, the ICE generating electricity in the corners is always needed with these PU's. Racing is about the corners, not so much the straights. It's in the corners where the best drivers will come out on top, the straight is just there to connect to the next corner.
On March 08 2026 21:05 Penev wrote: Well, that's the first race with the new regs done. It's fun that the Ferrari's start better than the rest, it made the opening act of the race interesting and I have to assume we'll be getting this dynamic in the next races as well so that is nice. I don't think that the outcome would've been different had the Ferrari's come in earlier under the VSC but it could've prevented the boring 1 stop of the top 4 perhaps.
It wasn't the worse race I've seen, mainly due to the first stint, but I'm not optimistic for this season. And of course qualifying is ruined by these regs.
Where does the optimism come from?
You have 2 cars one second faster than the rest. The potential engine shenenigans will only have a decision in the summer. Unless mercedes decides to pull a papaya and have the 2 drivers trade blows, the championship will be decided by then.
It might not be as bad as the first year of the Merc wins in the Ham/Ros days, but its bad enough that I don't think this season matters at all in terms of racing.
Watch people now claiming Russel is an out of this world driver.
What optimism? Read my post again, mainly the last sentence, and get some sleep Kobra.
Sorry i read "im optimist for this season" and was confused....and yes i was really needing sleep in those days! :D
I was really hoping this season would deliver and that quickly turned into absolute frustration because this is like my worst case scenario for F1.
Ooh no worries. But yeah, it's horrible. It sucks that 1 team is clearly the best but that's not even the worst of it. The sport is ruined with these regulations imo.They cannot fix this because a big part of these regs is that the ICE functions as a generator to be able to fill these batteries to a significant enough level. This generating has to happen somewhere on the track obviously so there's always going to be moments where the cars are going to be slow, it's unavoidable. Therefore qualifying especially is ruined because how is qualifying interesting if we don't see cars going as fast is possible through the corners?
So even if they fix the super clipping at the end of the straights, which I already doubt is possible for all tracks, the ICE generating electricity in the corners is always needed with these PU's. Racing is about the corners, not so much the straights. It's in the corners where the best drivers will come out on top, the straight is just there to connect to the next corner.
This isn't new though. The previous generation had the exact same setup of electric motor with a batteri charged with the ICE. The only difference is in the numbers. Last year it was 20% electric engine power and 80% ICE. They still generated battery on the straights and fast corners, it just wasn't as noticeable
Now it's closer to 55-45, which just isn't working out. But there's nothing saying they can't tune it back up to other ratios which would work better, such as 70-30. This new set of regulations aren't completely hopeless. The parts are there, they just need to be tuned.
Remember, last time we had a big regulation change, people by the second race if the season were screaming that the cars were completely undrivable, unsafe, and the bouncy cars were a disgrace to watch.
On March 08 2026 21:05 Penev wrote: Well, that's the first race with the new regs done. It's fun that the Ferrari's start better than the rest, it made the opening act of the race interesting and I have to assume we'll be getting this dynamic in the next races as well so that is nice. I don't think that the outcome would've been different had the Ferrari's come in earlier under the VSC but it could've prevented the boring 1 stop of the top 4 perhaps.
It wasn't the worse race I've seen, mainly due to the first stint, but I'm not optimistic for this season. And of course qualifying is ruined by these regs.
Where does the optimism come from?
You have 2 cars one second faster than the rest. The potential engine shenenigans will only have a decision in the summer. Unless mercedes decides to pull a papaya and have the 2 drivers trade blows, the championship will be decided by then.
It might not be as bad as the first year of the Merc wins in the Ham/Ros days, but its bad enough that I don't think this season matters at all in terms of racing.
Watch people now claiming Russel is an out of this world driver.
What optimism? Read my post again, mainly the last sentence, and get some sleep Kobra.
Sorry i read "im optimist for this season" and was confused....and yes i was really needing sleep in those days! :D
I was really hoping this season would deliver and that quickly turned into absolute frustration because this is like my worst case scenario for F1.
Ooh no worries. But yeah, it's horrible. It sucks that 1 team is clearly the best but that's not even the worst of it. The sport is ruined with these regulations imo.They cannot fix this because a big part of these regs is that the ICE functions as a generator to be able to fill these batteries to a significant enough level. This generating has to happen somewhere on the track obviously so there's always going to be moments where the cars are going to be slow, it's unavoidable. Therefore qualifying especially is ruined because how is qualifying interesting if we don't see cars going as fast is possible through the corners?
So even if they fix the super clipping at the end of the straights, which I already doubt is possible for all tracks, the ICE generating electricity in the corners is always needed with these PU's. Racing is about the corners, not so much the straights. It's in the corners where the best drivers will come out on top, the straight is just there to connect to the next corner.
This isn't new though. The previous generation had the exact same setup of electric motor with a batteri charged with the ICE. The only difference is in the numbers. Last year it was 20% electric engine power and 80% ICE. They still generated battery on the straights and fast corners, it just wasn't as noticeable
Now it's closer to 55-45, which just isn't working out. But there's nothing saying they can't tune it back up to other ratios which would work better, such as 70-30. This new set of regulations aren't completely hopeless. The parts are there, they just need to be tuned.
Remember, last time we had a big regulation change, people by the second race if the season were screaming that the cars were completely undrivable, unsafe, and the bouncy cars were a disgrace to watch.
You're mistaken Excludos, we've never had the ICE as a generator. We had the MGU-H which harvested energy from the exhaust heat. That is gone now (because of Audi). There were no slow corners or super clipping at all last regulations. The sillyness you are watching is not just because of the 50/50 split, it's because of the actual combustion engine being used as a generator which will always be the case, even if they change the energy ratio.
So to be clear, before we had the MGU-H (exhaust heat) and the electricity generation using engine braking. The engine braking stayed but is accompanied now by the ICE actually burning fuel to generate electricity. This is what's causing not the clipping, that's engine braking, but the super clipping and the slow corners. It's bad for racing and frankly, not energy efficient either.
Hmm yeah. You're right. There is a difference there. Still not convinced it's something that can't be fixed. I suppose we'll see in a month and a half time or so.
I enjoyed this race. Good fighting between Russell and the ferraris, and the ferraris against each other afterwards. Good fighting between the Alpines/Haas/Max. Yes, Mercedes is miles ahead in the end, but the racing has been very good in like 50% of the laps, which is much better than the previous years. There is a lot of potential with these regs, if all the teams sort their engines out and come closer to Mercedes we have some good years ahead.
Alonso made a statement about the battery management shenanigans today that illustrates the problem quite well: "Maybe 50% of the team members can drive in Suzuka now I think. High speed corners are now the charging station for the car. So driver skill is no longer needed anymore. You just need to back of the throttle or turn down the battery and you charge the thing."
Leclerc was also very vocal about it today. I hate this so much, I want my qualifying back.. :/
On March 29 2026 01:45 Penev wrote: Alonso made a statement about the battery management shenanigans today that illustrates the problem quite well: "Maybe 50% of the team members can drive in Suzuka now I think. High speed corners are now the charging station for the car. So driver skill is no longer needed anymore. You just need to back of the throttle or turn down the battery and you charge the thing."
Leclerc was also very vocal about it today. I hate this so much, I want my qualifying back.. :/
I was really hopeful that we would see some changes after the third race, as FIA talked about. But the idea has apparently already been scrapped, because they liked the close battle in the last race..
I have no words. The racing is ridiculously artificial, we're seeing 90km/h drops on the straights, high speed corners have become parking lots, and driver skills have become pointless, but because there were passes in the last race (which we all know is the only thing that matters), then racing was good and nothing should change. My enthusiasm for this season is dropping like a rock. If this continues I might genuinely not bother tuning in.
EPT
