Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley believes Formula 1 “is in rude health” amid its shift to the polarising new regulations ruleset.
The 2026 season, due to kick off in Melbourne in just over a week’s time, promises much excitement through the radical new rulebook, which has already stirred controversy.
With cars now further electrified through the all-new 50-50 V6 hybrids, energy management is now an increased skill required for drivers to enhance the new cars’ performance.
The new regulations have already divided opinion, with drivers already casting some negative assertions about the cars, the standout being Max Verstappen’s “Formula E on steroids” remark.
But Smedley, who worked as an engineer in F1 between 2001 and 2018 for teams including Ferrari, believes that the sport is in as strong a position as it’s ever been.
“I think Formula 1 is it is in rude health, right? It’s never been as healthy as it is now,” he told Motorsport Week in an exclusive interview. “It is more popular, significantly, I think it’s more popular because it’s a better sporting spectacle.
“I think we’ve turned Formula 1 into a better sporting spectacle, it knows pretty much what it is.
“Formula 1 went through a long period of not really a bit of an identity crisis, you know, was it a technological pursuit? Was it a business? Was it a sport? It couldn’t really work itself out.
“I think it’s done that very very well and it’s just said we are entertainment this is what we do I think Liberty Media have been absolutely outstanding for the sport.
“Some of the purists and the avids may not like the direction that it’s gone – you can’t please all of the people all of the time – but if you look at the popularity and the ever-reducing age demographic that that is going into, it’s brilliant. It’s in really good shape.”
Smedley pleased that F1 cars now looks ‘less like a pickup truck’ with new regulations
Smedley, perhaps best known as the race engineer for Felipe Massa at Ferrari, was overwhelmingly positive of the new regulations, and believes that the pre-season talk will ultimately dissipate once the season gets underway.
“We’ve got quite seismic rule changes this year. I quite like them,” he said. “I really like the look of the cars, I’m glad that the cars have shrunk a little bit. It’s nice that they look a little bit more like they look more like a Formula 1 car than a pickup truck, so that’s nice.
“And I think that you know in terms of like the the technical regulations there’s a lot of talk now, but I think they’re very well thought-out regulations.
“There’s always going to be a lot of noise about new regulations, [but] it’s just par for the course, it’s the nature of the game.
“ButI think that once we get to Australia, we get one or two races, all of that will go away, it always does, unless there’s some like major upset like porpoising, when we first introduced these ground-effect cars.
“All of that kind of like melts into the background and people just get more interested in the racing.”
Speculation around the new rules will end when the season kicks off for real in Melbourne, with the first practice session commencing at Albert Park at 1:30am, UK time, next Friday.
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