Alex Albon has said that the smartest Formula 1 drivers can “abuse the system” and will adapt best to the cars of next year’s new regulations.
2026 will see a new look F1 in which cars will adhere to a new set of rules, including new tyres, chassis designs and an equally-split hybrid power unit.
There is also a significant drop in downforce and drag in the cars in a bid to improve handling, with the machines also said to be higher-revving during cornering.
This has led to some scepticism about how popular the cars will be, with Charles Leclerc giving a less-than-positive report after his initial simulator run earlier in the summer.
Albon told media including Motorsport Week of his experience so far, concluding that the cars will be even more cognitively taxing on the drivers.
“It’s difficult to drive. The load on the driver mentally is high as well,” the Anglo-Thai driver said.
“It’s quite important to know how to use the engine and the deployment and you have to learn a different driving style, but it’s part of the regulations.
“It’s technology at the end of the day. So on our side, I wasn’t that shocked by the car, the performance of the car.
“It was more just getting my head around the PU and understanding how to make the most of that.”
Albon: ‘I just want good racing’
Albon added that the cars won’t necessitate vastly different driving styles, ruling out the possibility of lift and coast being a common practice, despite the increased electrification.
“In the end I just want good racing,” he said. “We all just want good racing. I’m not sure the speeds of the cars or the way that they’re driven is going to change too much.
“I don’t think it’s become kind of Formula E style where you know you’re getting these massive lift and coast sessions and all these kinds of things.
“But I don’t think it will change too much.“
However, there will be a difference in overall drivability, which will separate the wheat from the chaff, according to Albon.
“I’m not moaning. I’m just saying it’s different. Like it’s really different to drive,” the Williams driver concluded.
“The drivers that are really going to go well on this are the ones that can be really adaptable.
“You’re gonna have to have a very open-minded approach to how to drive these cars, and I believe that the drivers who have the capacity to drive and understand how to drive them.
“Even these cars now we are driving them flat out.
“You have a bit of PU clipping and all these kinds of things, but for next year it’s going to be a bit more of a complete package as to how you get to that.
“There is a lot that the driver has to do. I don’t think it will always just purely be around how good the driver is around the corner.
“A driver who’s quite smart and can understand the system and abuse the system, to understand how it works and becomes efficient on it, they’re going to find performance in that as well.”
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