The F1 new rule changes Poll

[rdjohn]

PhilAsia said:

rdjohn said:

I would have gone for a 4th option


Too soon to judge

Not sure you're right...

We need to see Red Bull, AM Honda and AUDI up to full speed. I also think that once McLaren learn the tricks with programming the Mercedes Control Unit, things might be quite exciting.

The good thing is that a lot is about the drivers using the tools to race rather than clever aero. I agree that LiCo at the end of straights must be extremely counter intuitive for the drivers.

[PRO5T]

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he’s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I’ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal “never happy” attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and “active aero trains” the same lot will be moaning how it isn’t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days…

[732NM]

I was watching Bloomberg TV this evening and the matter of the new F1 rules came up, it wasn't positive, with the talking heads talking about quick fixes needed or they will lose a lot of fans. If Bloomberg are taking this view, you can bet Liberty will be getting twitchy.

[Megaflow]

PRO5T said:

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal never happy attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and active aero trains the same lot will be moaning how it isn t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days

Yep, totally this.

I've been watching since the late 80's and haven't seen cars following this close through corners in years, I'll take that!

[anonymous_user]

732NM said:

I was watching Bloomberg TV this evening and the matter of the new F1 rules came up, it wasn't positive, with the talking heads talking about quick fixes needed or they will lose a lot of fans. If Bloomberg are taking this view, you can bet Liberty will be getting twitchy.

i'm sure Liberty have actual metrics, rather than Bloomberg who dont

& considering the average PH demographic voting on this poll, i wouldn't be suprised if that general metric is far more positive

[Sandpit Steve]

anonymous_user said:

732NM said:

I was watching Bloomberg TV this evening and the matter of the new F1 rules came up, it wasn't positive, with the talking heads talking about quick fixes needed or they will lose a lot of fans. If Bloomberg are taking this view, you can bet Liberty will be getting twitchy.

i'm sure Liberty have actual metrics, rather than Bloomberg who dont

& considering the average PH demographic voting on this poll, i wouldn't be suprised if that general metric is far more positive

Bloomberg and CNBC are the news sources of choice for the Americans with large corner office suites, as opposed to the data guys at Biggin Hill. It’s the sort of reporting that will at least have the Liberty bigwigs seeking assurances that the problems are under control.

There were also reports of an extensive social media operation after the first race, to hide and downvote comments critical of the new regulations.

[Tim the pool man]

anonymous_user said:

732NM said:

I was watching Bloomberg TV this evening and the matter of the new F1 rules came up, it wasn't positive, with the talking heads talking about quick fixes needed or they will lose a lot of fans. If Bloomberg are taking this view, you can bet Liberty will be getting twitchy.

i'm sure Liberty have actual metrics, rather than Bloomberg who dont

& considering the average PH demographic voting on this poll, i wouldn't be suprised if that general metric is far more positive

The average PH demographic on this thread would represent genuine and long term F1 fans... the "general metric" would be lots of USians and DTS newbies, too stupid to realise that 20 fake overtakes per lap is ridiculous...

[tangerine_sedge]

Tim the pool man said:

anonymous_user said:

732NM said:

I was watching Bloomberg TV this evening and the matter of the new F1 rules came up, it wasn't positive, with the talking heads talking about quick fixes needed or they will lose a lot of fans. If Bloomberg are taking this view, you can bet Liberty will be getting twitchy.

i'm sure Liberty have actual metrics, rather than Bloomberg who dont

& considering the average PH demographic voting on this poll, i wouldn't be suprised if that general metric is far more positive

The average PH demographic on this thread would represent genuine and long term F1 fans... the "general metric" would be lots of USians and DTS newbies, too stupid to realise that 20 fake overtakes per lap is ridiculous...

Looking at the stats there are as many people who seem to like these new rules as dislike them - plenty on both sides being long term F1 fans, so you can't just say it's unknowledgable/new fans that find the new rules have improved the racing.

I'd much rather watch racing with 20 'fake' overtakes per lap, than a 70 lap foregone conclusion procession won by whoever has the best spreadsheet software.

[The Vambo]

PRO5T said:

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal never happy attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and active aero trains the same lot will be moaning how it isn t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days

[The Vambo]

Tim the pool man said:

The average PH demographic on this thread would represent genuine and long term F1 fans... the "general metric" would be lots of USians and DTS newbies, too stupid to realise that 20 fake overtakes per lap is ridiculous...

There is an interesting smug attitude prevalent in F1 old boys (of which I am) that anyone who either likes the new overtaking or who were fed up with the lack of close racing in recent years lacks either the mental capacity or the attention span to watch 'real' F1.

That, Imho is the defensive reaction of an old mind who knows they've stagnated and are being left behind as they did their fathers 30 years ago.

[anonymous_user]

The Vambo said:

Tim the pool man said:

The average PH demographic on this thread would represent genuine and long term F1 fans... the "general metric" would be lots of USians and DTS newbies, too stupid to realise that 20 fake overtakes per lap is ridiculous...

There is an interesting smug attitude prevalent in F1 old boys (of which I am) that anyone who either likes the new overtaking or who were fed up with the lack of close racing in recent years lacks either the mental capacity or the attention span to watch 'real' F1.

That, Imho is the defensive reaction of an old mind who knows they've stagnated and are being left behind as they did their fathers 30 years ago.

reminiscence bump

[paulguitar]

PRO5T said:

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal never happy attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and active aero trains the same lot will be moaning how it isn t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days

There's some truth to that, but a lot of criticism is reasonable.

'The old days' were magical in some ways, and crap in others. The V10/V12 era of F1 was glorious to witness in person; the cars were astoundingly viscerally impressive. I have memories of those days that I will have forever. Jean Alesi going into Maggotts flat out in the V12 Ferrari, Mika Hakkinen on the overrun into the bus stop. Senna at Donington in 1993, sublime.

But the races at that time were often very boring. So trying ways to liven up that side of things is to be applauded. The DRS trains were annoying and the ground effect era was a bit of a failure overall.

I'm on the fence about 2026 so far. The Grand Prix in China was pretty entertaining, if a bit Mario Kartish. But the situation with qualifying is concerning because there does not seem to be an obvious fix, and at the moment, it's been completely ruined.

[PhilAsia]

paulguitar said:

PRO5T said:

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal never happy attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and active aero trains the same lot will be moaning how it isn t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days

There's some truth to that, but a lot of criticism is reasonable.

'The old days' were magical in some ways, and crap in others. The V10/V12 era of F1 was glorious to witness in person; the cars were astoundingly viscerally impressive. I have memories of those days that I will have forever. Jean Alesi going into Maggotts flat out in the V12 Ferrari, Mika Hakkinen on the overrun into the bus stop. Senna at Donington in 1993, sublime.

But the races at that time were often very boring. So trying ways to liven up that side of things is to be applauded. The DRS trains were annoying and the ground effect era was a bit of a failure overall.

I'm on the fence about 2026 so far. The Grand Prix in China was pretty entertaining, if a bit Mario Kartish. But the situation with qualifying is concerning because there does not seem to be an obvious fix, and at the moment, it's been completely ruined.

Ditto...

[simonrockman]

We'vee been through too many seasons where it has been just about tyre management. If it's now also about battery management at least that adds something to the mix, and at least battery is PU which feels more driver driven than tyres.

I've loved the season so far.

[TomTheTyke]

PhilAsia said:

paulguitar said:

PRO5T said:

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal never happy attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and active aero trains the same lot will be moaning how it isn t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days

There's some truth to that, but a lot of criticism is reasonable.

'The old days' were magical in some ways, and crap in others. The V10/V12 era of F1 was glorious to witness in person; the cars were astoundingly viscerally impressive. I have memories of those days that I will have forever. Jean Alesi going into Maggotts flat out in the V12 Ferrari, Mika Hakkinen on the overrun into the bus stop. Senna at Donington in 1993, sublime.

But the races at that time were often very boring. So trying ways to liven up that side of things is to be applauded. The DRS trains were annoying and the ground effect era was a bit of a failure overall.

I'm on the fence about 2026 so far. The Grand Prix in China was pretty entertaining, if a bit Mario Kartish. But the situation with qualifying is concerning because there does not seem to be an obvious fix, and at the moment, it's been completely ruined.

Ditto...

I think all that’s fair enough. I watched the C4 highlights from China and did enjoy it, and certainly more than most of last year’s races.

I also agree we can’t just go on forever wishing we had the V10 era back.

However, I think that the centrality of hybrid tech is already waning, so they’ve created this artificiality for a very dubious reason.

The problems with previous F1 were inability to follow closely and overtake, made worse by the size of the cars.

That could be solved without any kind of battery management. For me that would be the best solution but it would need an acknowledgement that there is less and less transferable tech of any kind between F1 and normal cars. Audi apparently weren’t keen on that so here we are.

[paulguitar]

simonrockman said:

We'vee been through too many seasons where it has been just about tyre management. If it's now also about battery management at least that adds something to the mix, and at least battery is PU which feels more driver driven than tyres.

I've loved the season so far.

Tyre management and battery management.


HURRAH!

[SpudLink]

I’ve just watched the video from The Race analysing Charles LeClerc’s qualifying lap in China. A tiny moment of oversteer triggered a scenario in the software which cost him significant ‘super clipping’ 30 seconds later in the lap.
So the drivers who push to the absolute edge, giving the fans what they want, are severely punished on the straights.

I am really struggling to enjoy F1 in 2026.

[TheDeuce]

SpudLink said:

I ve just watched the video from The Race analysing Charles LeClerc s qualifying lap in China. A tiny moment of oversteer triggered a scenario in the software which cost him significant super clipping 30 seconds later in the lap.
So the drivers who push to the absolute edge, giving the fans what they want, are severely punished on the straights.

I am really struggling to enjoy F1 in 2026.

Saturdays are basically ruined now. There's still some anticipation/excitement in seeing who goes fastest and how the grid stacks up, but might as well just watch the timing screens as there's nothing dramatic to 'see' on the tarmac anymore.

We also can't 'see' the effect the software is having upon the drivers efforts, or when a harvesting mistake has been made, it's all invisible. Completely different to seeing a traditional F1 mistake, a moment of oversteer or whatever, and being able to appreciate why that harmed lap time.

I know a lot of people seem to like the extra passing these hidden layers of complexity promote, but I also suspect that as time passes, more people will start to tire of the token passing and it'll start to grate how feeble the cars are in places that used to be exciting.


Let's see how they go through the esses and 130r in Japan...

[simonrockman]

All the engines are hand grenades. Expect all the teams to have DNFs. Including Mercedes.

[Eric Mc]

PhilAsia said:

paulguitar said:

PRO5T said:

Met with a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he s in his 70s and is the usual old school F1 crowd.

I said the only thing I ve figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal never happy attitude.

I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow, dirty air and active aero trains the same lot will be moaning how it isn t as good as the first few races!

Nothing is ever good enough, nothing will beat the old days

There's some truth to that, but a lot of criticism is reasonable.

'The old days' were magical in some ways, and crap in others. The V10/V12 era of F1 was glorious to witness in person; the cars were astoundingly viscerally impressive. I have memories of those days that I will have forever. Jean Alesi going into Maggotts flat out in the V12 Ferrari, Mika Hakkinen on the overrun into the bus stop. Senna at Donington in 1993, sublime.

But the races at that time were often very boring. So trying ways to liven up that side of things is to be applauded. The DRS trains were annoying and the ground effect era was a bit of a failure overall.

I'm on the fence about 2026 so far. The Grand Prix in China was pretty entertaining, if a bit Mario Kartish. But the situation with qualifying is concerning because there does not seem to be an obvious fix, and at the moment, it's been completely ruined.

Ditto...

And me - similar views.

At the moment the drivers and teams are learning how these cars actually work. I think their main problem is understanding how and when to make best use of the variable state of battery charge and how it works on different circuits. It creates a huge amount of unpredictablity, which is not altogether not a bad thing - but it can be dangerous (which, also, is not altogether not a bad thing as far as I'm concerned).