Welcome to Sunday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
By announcing a major change to its regulations for 2027 just four rounds into the season, Formula 1 has effectively acknowledged it got its rules fundamentally wrong, says Dex:
If it’s so bad, change it completely. All this makes no sense. What’s the point of these rules if you admit they cannot work without gimmicks? They wanted to promote electric vehicle technology, but instead they made it look bad. The way the tech has been used has proven inadequate, and the sport is suffering for it.
By tweaking the rules immediately after a couple of races they have already admitted that something is wrong. By doing this they will end up admitting that almost everything is wrong. If that is the case, just give up and spare us years of agony. This is F1 — it should feel like F1. Right now, F2 is a much greater driving challenge, where the best driver may win, instead of the best conductor.
Cars always mattered in F1, and they should. But driving mattered too. Now AI matters more than the driver. The driver is not even allowed to drive to half his potential because the battery can’t handle it. Come on, burn the rule book and start over. I wish you would abandon this season, in fact.
Dex
Social media and links
Formula One Group (FWONK) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)
Brian Wendling, Chief Accounting Officer & Principal Financial Officer: “Right now, we’re focused on a 22-race calendar. And as Derek said, we’re still hopeful that we can move one of those races (the cancelled Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix) to the back part of the year. So that would be upside, but that’s what’s in the forecast at this point is the 22 races.”
As Formula 1 evolves, AI becomes part of the race (Reuters)
“It’s gone from a sort of basic AI to more of an agentic approach where rather than just searching for something, it’s actually providing decisions for us,” Jack Harington, the group partnership lead for Red Bull, told Reuters.
Ford in talks with Verstappen for future Le Mans hypercar seat (Sportscar 365)
“Not for 2027. Depending on the schedules and what’s going on, it could be during (his F1 career).”
Qualifying highlights: Indianapolis Road Course (IndyCar)
An epic race comes to an end – Six Hours of Spa (WEC)
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Julian Castaldi!
On this day in motorsport
- Born today in 1975: Future four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves
- Born today in 1977: Nick Heidfeld – 1999 Formula 3000 champion; took his only F1 pole position in his home race in 2005; holds the record for most second places without a win (eight); 2014 WEC LMP1 (non-hybrid) co-champion
- 40 years ago today Alain Prost took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix
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