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The post Verstappen Retires from Nürburgring 24h; Palou Claims Indy 500 Pole first appeared on F1TR.

The FIA announced F1’s latest engine regulations in the year after Ben Sulayem became president. Since the new rules came into effect this season, some drivers, team members and fans have voiced concerns about their impact on on-track racing and single-lap performance.

Ben Sulayem says much of the criticism has come from teams that have found themselves less competitive under the new regulations.

“We consulted with the power unit manufacturers and we consulted with teams,” Ben Sulayem told Forbes. “When I took over, it was 2022 – it was signed in 2022, in August. But this didn’t come in eight months. It has been discussed for 18 months, collectively, with all of the teams, and then was introduced.

“Everybody had the same time: if you look at August of 2022 and then the implementation in the first test they did which was in Barcelona this year, that was enough time for everyone. Some of them had an issue with the car – some the power unit and some with the chassis – but it’s amazing how only the people who are behind are complaining. Did you hear Mercedes or Ferrari complain? No, of course they won’t. It’s a cycle.

“It’s today you have someone who is so good, and then everybody wants to be taking his place. And that’s the competitors, being competitive. But the criticism is only from the people who maybe didn’t do it right.”

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The FIA has acknowledged, however, that some adjustments to the 2026 regulations were necessary. To address driver and team concerns, it agreed a package of changes, most of which were introduced at the Miami round.

“We had a discussion after Australia, we had to discuss it with our technical department and the single-seater commission and then we came with consultation with the drivers. So we consulted with the drivers on how to apply the electrification, and a matter of safety, and now it seems it’s better,” Ben Sulayem said. “For the FIA, it’s our responsibility. We don’t take decisions just because we feel like it. We engage, we consult, we take all of the information and then we see what’s the best for everyone, not the best single team.”

The FIA has also announced a more significant change to next year’s engine rules: rebalancing the power units so a greater share of power comes from the combustion engine rather than electrical systems. That marks a clear shift away from the original vision of a 50-50 split between combustion and electrical energy generation.

Ben Sulayem is also pressing to bring forward plans to replace the current power units. He said this year’s shift to synthetic fuel creates an opportunity for F1 to return to a predominantly combustion-based power unit that could match current engines for efficiency and power while being lighter and cheaper to develop.

“The new engine, we talked about a V8, and I’m more now thinking of bringing the V8 back because in the end of 2030 the FIA gets back the power to do the engine without even having to go through a vote,” he explained. “But we would like to make it one year earlier.”

Accelerating the replacement would mean the current power unit rules would last just four years instead of the 12-year cycle that governed the previous regulations.

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Formula 1

• Only F1’s struggling teams are complaining about 2026 rules – Ben Sulayem
• Poll: Has the time finally come for Hamilton to hang up his helmet?
• Grosjean felt Renault ‘told everyone I wasn’t good enough for F1’ before return
• There’s one 2026 change Verstappen will approve of: Zero penalty points
• Which F1 drivers have made the strongest start to 2026 against their team mates?

Browse all Formula 1 articles

The post Struggling F1 Teams Criticize 2026 Rules, Says Ben Sulayem first appeared on F1TR.

Several drivers have argued the latest rules reduce the challenge of racing flat-out, make overtaking easier and more common, and may introduce safety issues. Vettel, who retired from F1 at the end of 2022, said he understands and shares those worries.

“From a sporting side I hear and echo the criticism,” he said. “The cars are probably fun to drive, but it’s perhaps not so enjoyable to race under these regulations and the difficulties they bring.

“I sympathise with the drivers and I’m determined not to lose the DNA and the heart of the sport, which is discovering the fastest driver in the fastest machine to win the race.”

The FIA has approved a number of adjustments to the new rules, most of which will take effect ahead of next week’s Miami round. “I hope from a sporting point of view that what they’re trying to address will make the drivers happier,” Vettel added, “because ultimately the drivers are the face of the sport.

“If they climb out of the car buzzing with adrenaline and excitement, that’s what fires up viewers on screens and fans in the stands.”

Several former drivers have voiced similar criticisms. Fellow world champion Nigel Mansell suggested the early races showed cars that “at times… are not actually racing.” Helmut Marko, who played a role in Vettel’s early career, argued a situation where “a full battery overtaking an empty one […] is not real overtaking.”

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F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has rejected the notion that the 2026 rules produce artificial racing. “What is artificial?” he said in a recent interview. “Overtaking is overtaking.”

Vettel made his comments at a press conference in Sweden, where he received an award recognizing his work promoting environmental and social change. The presentation was made by The Perfect World Foundation. Previous awardees have included Sir David Attenborough, Dr Jane Goodall and Prince Albert II of Monaco.

Formula 1

• Poll: Has the time finally come for Hamilton to hang up his helmet?
• Grosjean felt Renault ‘told everyone I wasn’t good enough for F1’ before return
• There’s one 2026 change Verstappen will approve of: Zero penalty points
• Which F1 drivers have made the strongest start to 2026 against their team mates?
• “Not correct” to say Ferrari should have discovered Antonelli instead of Mercedes

Browse all Formula 1 articles

The post Vettel Warns New F1 Cars Risk Losing the Sport’s Heart first appeared on F1TR.

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The post F1 Star Linked to Milan Escort Ring as Police Break Up Operation first appeared on F1TR.

The series revealed a package of adjustments to its widely criticised 2026 regulations on Monday. The changes are primarily aimed at making qualifying more challenging for drivers and improving safety by reducing the risk of dangerously high closing speeds between cars.

Nikolas Tombazis said the on-track racing itself is unlikely to change dramatically. “Fans have by and large been enjoying the new regulations because they’ve brought closer racing and I think first and foremost we expect that to continue,” he said in a video released by the FIA.

“We think that will be continuing and clearly as the regulations become more mature we expect some teams who are currently lagging behind to gradually catch up and have closer and closer racing as time goes by and as the months and years go by. So that we expect to stay.

“Regarding what we see at the track, these changes are not revolutionary. They’re not going to fundamentally change the picture that you see. Qualifying will be more flat-out for the drivers. Maybe you will perceive that as you see in the camera shots from within the cockpit and you hear the tone of the power unit, for example — that’s maybe one thing you’re going to see.”

Tombazis explained that the FIA prioritised the two main concerns raised by drivers: more enjoyable, competitive qualifying and improved safety. “The position of the drivers was quite uniform,” he said. “They were all pushing for some changes in qualifying in order to, let’s say, enjoy more the driving, push more, but also they were pushing for us to address certain safety concerns they had, so they were quite united and their input in this was very important.”

Because the season has already started, the FIA could only alter the technical regulations with the agreement of the teams. Tombazis noted, however, that the FIA retains the authority and responsibility to implement changes on safety grounds if necessary.

“We, of course, have a very established process whereby the FIA together with the teams or the power unit manufacturers discuss these changes in various meetings and discuss how to improve everything, how to improve the sport,” he said.

“Clearly when the regulations are new, like we have in 2026, that’s a slightly more intense process of discussion than maybe when the regulations had a few years of maturity.

“There’s a governance process to approve regulations. The FIA cannot unilaterally change regulations. They need to have a vote involving either the Formula 1 teams or the power unit manufacturers who — let’s not forget — spend millions and millions in the sport and therefore have a right to have a word.

“Safety is something we can’t compromise. Safety is something that, through the governance, the FIA has the right or even the responsibility to act even unilaterally. So any safety measures we of course discuss with everybody in order to hear the good views of very experienced people but ultimately we, FIA, can decide to take safety measures if we feel that’s important.”

Formula 1

• Poll: Has the time finally come for Hamilton to hang up his helmet?
• Grosjean felt Renault ‘told everyone I wasn’t good enough for F1’ before return
• There’s one 2026 change Verstappen will approve of: Zero penalty points
• Which F1 drivers have made the strongest start to 2026 against their team mates?
• “Not correct” to say Ferrari should have discovered Antonelli instead of Mercedes

Browse all Formula 1 articles

The post Revised 2026 F1 Rules Won’t Fundamentally Change the Picture, Says Tombazis first appeared on F1TR.

The single practice session will be extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes and will now start at noon local time.

“This decision has been taken in recognition of the gap since the last grand prix, the recently announced regulatory and technical adjustments, and the fact that as the Miami Grand Prix operates under the Sprint format which reduces the amount of practice time available over the course of the weekend,” the FIA said in a statement.

The opening practice session, scheduled for one week from tomorrow, will be the first official F1 track session since the Japanese Grand Prix ended on March 29. Races planned earlier this month in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled because of the conflict in Iran and related regional disruption and were not replaced, creating a longer break between events.

Several teams have used filming days or Pirelli testing opportunities during April to run their cars, including Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Alpine.

On Monday, F1 announced a set of technical regulation changes aimed at addressing safety concerns around high closing speeds between cars and at improving car behaviour in qualifying. Most of the changes are intended to take effect at the next race, though the FIA plans to evaluate adjustments to cars’ starting systems — measures intended to prevent very slow starts — and introduce those at a later date.

The next event after Miami is the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, held three weeks later, which also follows the sprint format.

Sprint weekends have previously reduced available practice time, creating issues for the championship. In 2023, F1 added an extra practice session at the sprint round in Qatar after tyre problems emerged following the only planned practice session.

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Formula 1

• Poll: Has the time finally come for Hamilton to hang up his helmet?
• Grosjean felt Renault ‘told everyone I wasn’t good enough for F1’ before return
• There’s one 2026 change Verstappen will approve of: Zero penalty points
• Which F1 drivers have made the strongest start to 2026 against their team mates?
• “Not correct” to say Ferrari should have discovered Antonelli instead of Mercedes

Browse all Formula 1 articles

The post Miami Grand Prix: New Rules Grant F1 Drivers Extra Practice Time first appeared on F1TR.

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The post McLaren to Unveil Revamped Car at Next Grand Prix — Full Updates first appeared on F1TR.

The Istanbul Park circuit will rejoin the 2027 F1 calendar under a new five-year agreement. The venue last hosted a world championship round in 2021, one of two races added to the revised calendar during the Covid-19 pandemic when many events outside Europe were cancelled.

Istanbul Park is a permanent road circuit designed for Formula 1 by Hermann Tilke. It first appeared on the F1 schedule in 2005 and remained on the calendar until 2011 before being dropped.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the agreement, saying the return of Turkey to the Formula 1 calendar reflects confidence in the country’s organisation, sports and healthcare infrastructure, and the hospitality of its people. He added that Turkey will once again deliver a flawless event.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali praised the track as “one of the most exciting and challenging circuits in Formula 1,” and highlighted Istanbul’s role as a cultural gateway between Europe and Asia, combining history and tradition with a modern approach to sport, business and entertainment.

Next year’s race will mark the 10th edition of the Turkish Grand Prix. The most recent winners at the circuit were Mercedes drivers: Lewis Hamilton, who clinched his record-equalling seventh world title at the 2020 Istanbul race, and Valtteri Bottas, who won the 2021 race.

The addition of Istanbul Park makes the Turkish Grand Prix the 24th event scheduled for the 2027 F1 season. The Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal, another circuit that last featured during the pandemic years, will also return to the calendar next season.

Both races replace this year’s rounds at the Circuit de Catalunya (which is expected to return in 2028) and Zandvoort. Rounds in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia that were cancelled this year are also expected to be reinstated.

Previous Turkish Grand Prix winners

Formula 1

• Poll: Has the time finally come for Hamilton to hang up his helmet?
• Grosjean felt Renault ‘told everyone I wasn’t good enough for F1’ before return
• There’s one 2026 change Verstappen will approve of: Zero penalty points
• Which F1 drivers have made the strongest start to 2026 against their team mates?
• “Not correct” to say Ferrari should have discovered Antonelli instead of Mercedes

Browse all Formula 1 articles

The post Turkish Grand Prix Returns to F1 Calendar in Five-Year Deal first appeared on F1TR.

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The post McNish Named Audi Racing Director After Wheatley Exit — Latest Motorsport Moves first appeared on F1TR.

Some cars consistently launch better than others, while a few drivers have produced notably poor starts on occasion. Those slow departures have become a safety concern: several near-misses occurred when drivers almost collided with slower cars ahead. Only Franco Colapinto’s quick reactions prevented a major incident when Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls car hesitated off the line in Melbourne.

This week the FIA announced measures aimed at reducing the risk from very slow starts. The governing body has developed a “low power start detection” system that can identify cars with abnormally low acceleration shortly after clutch release. In those cases, an automatic MGU-K deployment will be triggered to ensure a minimum level of acceleration and reduce start-related hazards without conferring what the FIA describes as a sporting advantage.

Whether that intervention is truly neutral from a sporting perspective depends on circumstances. If every car is equally likely to need the fallback power delivery, the effect is consistent across the field. But if certain designs or cars are more prone to suffering very poor starts, the system will disproportionately help those teams and drivers.

Looking at the evidence so far, some drivers have repeatedly made stronger starts than others. Drivers who qualify toward the back of the grid naturally have more opportunities to gain places at the first corner than those starting at the front. Mercedes’ drivers, for example, have often lost places at the start but they have still locked out the front row across all four races so far, including both parts of the sprint weekend in Shanghai.

Best and worst starts

On average, three teams have struggled significantly more than their rivals at the start this season. One of them is Mercedes, but Audi’s drivers have experienced the greatest difficulty in getting away cleanly so far.

It should be noted the new rule targets only extreme cases of poor starts, like Lawson’s in Australia, so its impact may be limited to relatively rare incidents.

The change is not expected to blunt the advantage of teams that regularly execute strong standing starts. Ferrari, for example, averages nearly two places gained per car per race, which is impressive given how high their cars typically qualify.

Ultimately, as teams adapt to the revised power unit regulations and the FIA’s planned electronic safeguards, the variability in standing starts is likely to reduce. The FIA will trial the low power start detection system during the Miami Grand Prix weekend before finalising its implementation, so further refinements could still follow.

Formula 1

• Poll: Has the time finally come for Hamilton to hang up his helmet?
• Grosjean felt Renault ‘told everyone I wasn’t good enough for F1’ before return
• There’s one 2026 change Verstappen will approve of: Zero penalty points
• Which F1 drivers have made the strongest start to 2026 against their team mates?
• “Not correct” to say Ferrari should have discovered Antonelli instead of Mercedes

Browse all Formula 1 articles

The post Which F1 Teams Are Off to Strongest Starts — and Which Are Struggling in 2026? first appeared on F1TR.