Rikhart wrote: ↑12 Feb 2026, 19:13
So we now have two of the most notorious drivers in the sport, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, openly criticizing the current regulations, in quite strong terms.
From the reports I have been reading, I fully agree with them, it seems you might benefit more from being an accountant of sorts, rather than a talented driver, because of the extreme management that is needed to maximize the energy available on each lap.
So, how could we fix this (especially in the short term)? An easy solution might be to reduce the battery on the overall power of the cars, or even eliminate it altogether, now that we are using sustainable fuels, but I can't see that being done in a short timeframe.
Realistically the goal should be to have slow enough deployment to not get clipping on normal laps, but to become vulnerable if you overuse overtake mode. I think this could be achieved with sharper deployment dropoff at high speed, perhaps beginning even at 150-200 km/h and increased energy flow to compensate. I suggest roughly 3600 MJ/hr (20% more than currently, about 20% less than 2014-2025). The sharper deployment dropoff means you don't clip as heavily on the straights, while the increase in energy flow keeps the top speed up. Overtake mode might need minor tweaks to prevent 1100hp monsters going 400kph with overtake and DRS, but that should be relatively simple.
The result is that the electrical energy is primarily used for acceleration out of corners and overtaking, while the ICE provides the majority of the grunt at high speed. This allows them to keep the nominal electrical output at 350kW, even if it's only at low speed. The FIA could probably still claim 45/55 if they wanted to, despite it being as untrue as 50/50 is today. Overall the cars might end up a little faster over a lap than they are now, but still slower than last year.
This would likely require a quick decision from the FIA and only come into effect for 2027, but it would largely resolve the issues with these engines. If they do this I also hope that they do something to make the cars a bit more interesting mid-corner as well. They look like sports cars in turn 1 and 4.
Another alternative to improve the racing is to simply cap deployment at something like 250kW, while still allowing harvesting at 350kW. Then you once again increase energy flow to compensate, potentially also making small tweaks to make the ICE more thermally efficient. When you can't deploy as much, you can deploy for longer, which will reduce the complexity of deployment and harvesting algorithms, which should reduce clipping.
