The new Formula 1 rulebook was sold as the future of the sport, backed by manufacturers and, notably, by Audi’s arrival as a headline act. On track, the first verdict is far less tidy. Yes, there is more overtaking and, yes, there is more show. But there is also a growing feeling that the driver matters less, that racing has become harder to understand on television, and that the whole thing increasingly looks like a contest designed by software engineers and artificial intelligence rather than by racers.

A season that has already exposed the problem

The opening races have only sharpened that impression.

  • Australia delivered 20 laps of chaos and an ending that lacked any real payoff.
  • China improved matters.
  • Japan, however, brought everything crashing together again.

There was a pole position that broke with some of Formula 1’s long-established reference points, such as the 130R corner. Then came the risk raised by Oliver Bearman’s heavy accident when he encountered Franco Colapinto at much lower speed.

Carlos Sainz summed up the mood neatly: “No sólo son problemas en la clasificación, también los hay en la forma de correr.” Or, in plain English, the issue is not just qualifying. It is also how the cars are being raced.

That concern is now pushing Formula 1 toward a review. Safety is part of it, obviously, but so is the broader complaint from drivers who do not see the new way of racing as a good fit. For now, only Mercedes seems fully comfortable with the rules, and that is not exactly surprising. The team is winning, and it is winning while appearing to understand the regulation package better than anyone else.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was blunt about the scale of the challenge: “The thing will not be simple, and that is the problem.” But, inconveniently for everyone involved, there are already six ideas on the table.

Energy is where the first changes could come

The measures, first reported by The Race, begin with the sport’s new obsession: energy. That is the core concept of the latest F1 era, even if viewers are not always sure what they are looking at. Fernando Alonso joked that it is “a world championship of batteries.”

That energy system is not going away. But Formula 1 is exploring ways to adjust how it is used, even if that carries the risk of producing slower cars. At this stage, that does not appear to be a disaster in itself. The current cars are already close to the limits of ground effect anyway.

One possibility is to increase what is known as superclipping. The term sounds backwards, because it refers to the point where the engines’ speed is cut on the straight. In this case, though, the idea would be to allow more energy to be deployed, rising from 250kW to 350kW, in line with the way deployment already works.

The logic is simple enough: avoid situations where cars are crawling at near standstill speeds and creating dangerous scenarios.

Charging could also be tightened. One route would be strict limits, similar to what was used in Japan, but potentially reduced even further, perhaps to 6MJ. Another option is even less glamorous: simply allow less energy overall.

The deeper rulebook could also move

Energy is only part of the conversation. The Race also points to more structural changes in the regulation itself.

The biggest one would involve the power unit, especially the current 50/50 split between electrical and thermal power. At the moment, that looks close to impossible to rewrite in any meaningful short-term way. Some engines could require a broader redesign, though smaller adjustments remain possible within the existing framework.

Aerodynamic activation is another area under review, along with the different operating modes available to the car.

Here Formula 1 may be willing to go further, especially in qualifying. The idea would be to change the system so the driver interprets the situation directly, rather than relying on predefined zones. In practical terms, that could mean removing those zones altogether.

And then there is the part everyone eventually gets to: making the rules simpler.

That is the final layer of this effort. The category appears to be looking for a streamlined rulebook, with fewer software-driven concepts and less room for errors that have little to do with the actual essence of Formula 1.

Which is the sort of sentence that should probably not need to be written in 2026, but here we are.