2026 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, March 27 - 29

[DJ Downforce]

No it wasn't because DRS was equal for all cars, with this horror show it's more like a lottery.

The point is that the drs was artificial racing too. You pressed a button to close the gap.

The GE racing post 2023 was just boring. I bet there will be a lot more overtakes at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix compared to last year's event here.

Feel free to unblock me on Twitter to discuss further

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

[LeQuick]

The point is that the drs was artificial racing too. You pressed a button to close the gap.

The GE racing post 2023 was just boring. I bet there will be a lot more overtakes at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix compared to last year's event here.

Feel free to unblock me on Twitter to discuss further

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Agree, but they would be even better if they had NA engines.

[Badger]

The point is that the drs was artificial racing too. You pressed a button to close the gap.

The GE racing post 2023 was just boring. I bet there will be a lot more overtakes at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix compared to last year's event here.

Feel free to unblock me on Twitter to discuss further

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Cruising in the corners and drag racing on the straights, can we even call that racing?

[LeQuick]

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Cruising in the corners and drag racing on the straights, can we even call that racing?

Amazing isn't it, but big props to those that can press a button.

[DJ Downforce]

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Agree, but they would be even better if they had NA engines.

It's whatever is in the interest of the manufacturers in the sport. Fan's aren't considered sadly...

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Cruising in the corners and drag racing on the straights, can we even call that racing?

Amazing isn't it, but big props to those that can press a button.

Like drs...?

[DJ Downforce]

It's nothing like the situation we have now, where neither driver nor spectators know what's truly going off. And to top it off this carries over to the purist of spectacles in qualifying, I mean drivers claiming they have gone quicker in a sector because of a mistake, truly pathetic.

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Cruising in the corners and drag racing on the straights, can we even call that racing?

It's better than anything we've had recently. There's been maybe 20 overtakes a race in the GE era. Most of the time less

[AR3-GP]

It requires a fairly significant breakdown of technology and feedback loops for a driver to experiment with taking T1 with the DRS open. He's done it in the sim, apparently didn't tell anyone, and then went to the circuit and turned the car into confetti. The story is even more unbelievable 1 year later.

Grand Prix week in Suzuka and I can only think about Jack Doohan.

He thought he'd discovered the trick of the century when he took turn 1 with the DRS open in the simulator, tried it on the track and split the car in half.

[DJ Downforce]

It requires a fairly significant breakdown of technology and feedback loops for a driver to experiment with taking T1 with the DRS open. He's done it in the sim, apparently didn't tell anyone, and then went to the circuit and turned the car into confetti. The story is even more unbelievable 1 year later.

Grand Prix week in Suzuka and I can only think about Jack Doohan.

He thought he'd discovered the trick of the century when he took turn 1 with the DRS open in the simulator, tried it on the track and split the car in half.

And later in the year crashed at the same corner multiple times when testing a super formula car. Not the brightest lad sadly, but hopefully he can find success in some other series....

[langedweil]

Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

It was artificial, but nowhere near the current state of affairs. In fact, I'd argue it was partly simulating (and perhaps overdoing it a bit) the old slipstream idea, because you first had to come close (<1s) and then you had to close in more with overspeed so a pass could be made. Oftentimes the drs zone was too long resulting in (too) easy passes. Then again, if cars would be rougly the same, the passed one could get drs in the next zone.
Main difference is all cars were always on 100% (minus deg), the drs was always xtra. In the current regs PU's might be 50/60% in power against a 100% (or even more with OM) PU. Racecars that lose half of their power for whatever reasons are ridiculous.
So the overtakes are way less skilled, and basically not impressive. And that combined with lame cornering because of LiCo or superclipping and dragracing the straights (which is just PU and not driver related), makes these regs silly .. well, worse than silly, and it'll cost F1 a lot of status and viewers.

Aside all that; I don't get this more-overtakes-is-better fetish, I'd rather have less but proper overtakes tbh. But that's personal obviously.

[ispano6]

Let's see how many grass fires there are this year. I'm thinking there will be at least one.

[AR3-GP]

Let's see how many grass fires there are this year. I'm thinking there will be at least one.

I think the cars run a bit higher than before.

[venkyhere]

Can we please not have a thread full of complaints again. Perhaps a separate thread can be made for that? Or these people who hate this formula so much could stop watching for a while?

F1technical is site for purists

you should visit some sites recommended by your influencers who start every sentence with 'o my god'

If you feel a F1 car with 600hp for 80 sec of a 88 sec lap exciting, pls enjoy

Even a F2 car has more hp

Do the "purists" prefer to watch GE boats which stay in the same position they qualified all race? Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

I fully agree that these regs aren't perfect especially qualifying but it seems some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

No. In previous regs, it required a certain amount of skill to follow in the dirty air to be within the 1s window, to use DRS on the straight. It required a certain amount of skill to 'deny' the 1s window to stay in the lead, even if the chasing car gets closer in the slipstream in the straight.
With current regs, only 'overtake mode' requires the above skillset to use/deny the advantage in the straight. However, superior/inferior charging/discharging via better S/W or illegal ICE , doesn't require 'driver skill' in the rest of the track until reaching the straight. There is even 'boost mode' that's a 'DRS whenever I want' in any part of the track.
They are chalk and cheese.

And my point is that the purists could discuss this in a separate thread...?

why ? why do you keep insisting on separate threads for things you dont like to read ? Just skip. No one is forcing you to read. Or if you like this formula so much that you hate comments criticizing it, come up with arguments to counter. Like you have done above. Otherwise just skip.

[zibby43]

F1technical is site for purists

you should visit some sites recommended by your influencers who start every sentence with 'o my god'

If you feel a F1 car with 600hp for 80 sec of a 88 sec lap exciting, pls enjoy

Even a F2 car has more hp

Do the "purists" prefer to watch GE boats which stay in the same position they qualified all race? Drs was just as artificial as the battery management.

I fully agree that these regs aren't perfect especially qualifying but it seems some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

No. In previous regs, it required a certain amount of skill to follow in the dirty air to be within the 1s window, to use DRS on the straight. It required a certain amount of skill to 'deny' the 1s window to stay in the lead, even if the chasing car gets closer in the slipstream in the straight.
With current regs, only 'overtake mode' requires the above skillset to use/deny the advantage in the straight. However, superior/inferior charging/discharging via better S/W or illegal ICE , doesn't require 'driver skill' in the rest of the track until reaching the straight. There is even 'boost mode' that's a 'DRS whenever I want' in any part of the track.
They are chalk and cheese.

And my point is that the purists could discuss this in a separate thread...?

why ? why do you keep insisting on separate threads for things you dont like to read ? Just skip. No one is forcing you to read. Or if you like this formula so much that you hate comments criticizing it, come up with arguments to counter. Like you have done above. Otherwise just skip.

You remember the old regs very differently. The only way a trailing car was staying within a second of another car in the previous regs was for a very short period of time or they'd have to hang back to cool the PU and the tires. Some tracks required a pace delta of around 1s+ to be able to pass a car on a like-for-like strategy.

It took skill and racecraft to fight the way HAM and LEC fought in China. And it was enjoyable. I'm glad I don't have to force my mind to pick between liking one style over the other like some kind of zero sum game lol.

[DDopey]

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Cruising in the corners and drag racing on the straights, can we even call that racing?

It's better than anything we've had recently. There's been maybe 20 overtakes a race in the GE era. Most of the time less

Don’t call this racing. If overtaking is really the only thing you are looking for you were following the wrong sport.

[Badger]

Yes I agree changes need to be made for qualifying. But the racing itself is much better.

Cruising in the corners and drag racing on the straights, can we even call that racing?

It's better than anything we've had recently. There's been maybe 20 overtakes a race in the GE era. Most of the time less

The number of overtakes has never been a true metric for the quality of racing. F1 as the most popular motorsport in the world was hardly built on the quantity of overtakes, it was built on exceptional engineering, exceptional driving, and having superior cornering performance compared to other series. One exceptional overtake leaves a bigger impression than several mediocre ones.

For me the biggest loss isn't necessarily the actual pass itself, it's what it takes to get there. The hunter vs the hunted, engaged in a battle of driving their cars to perfection, one trying to get past and the other trying to defend. Now they're not even on the limit in the corners so the entire challenge is reduced to little more than who has the better car and deployment.