FIA single seater director Nikolas Tombazis has defended Formula 1′s controversial new ruleset, claiming the opening races of the season have “gone quite well in many ways,” amid the sport’s “refinements” of them.
F1 has kicked off its new era and new season with some seismic criticism of the new regulations cycle, which is led by new 50-50 hybrid power units.
This has led to accusations of more superficial racing with higher but possibly misleading overtake numbers.
Energy management, which is a constant throughout every lap of a race and in qualifying, has seen lap times fall and suspicions of new dangers, due to big speed differences between one car to another.
Within F1’s enforced five-week break, discussions have taken place between the FIA and key F1 figures, which resulted in what was described as “refinements” that see changes to intricacies within qualifying, racing and wet weather racing.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem revealed before the announcement of the tweaks that informal discussions with drivers have also taken place, despite their non-participation in the official talks.
But Tombazis has called for understanding given the regulation overhaul is so large, and reiterated that changes were always possible, having previously said so after the opening round.
“These 2026 regulations, as we’ve said a few times, are one of the biggest changes we’ve had probably in the history of Formula 1,” he said.
“They were quite important to maintain the relevance, the technological developments, with the increased electrification and so on. We knew always that they presented certain challenges, and we always said we were going to review them after the first few races.
“The first few races have gone quite well in many ways. It has been exciting with lots of close racing and overtaking, but there certainly have been areas where we needed to intervene. So the approach we took here was one of evolution and refinement, not revolution. We don’t think there was any need for revolution.”
‘Uniform’ mindset from drivers presented ‘important input’ on F1 rule changes
Tombazis continued that a breadth of consensus from various circles was crucial to the changes being implemented, recognising the drivers’ opinons were important, given they are the ones primarily at the coalface.
“There is a governance that underpins the Formula 1 regulations, which means that while the FIA lead the process and guide and carry out the work, we do need to have a level of consensus achieved with the various stakeholders – mainly the teams and the power unit manufacturers – and that is the work we have been carry out recently,” he said.
“But we have also been discussing the matters with the drivers, because ultimately they are sitting in the car, they experience things first-hand, and it is invaluable to get their input. All of that led to the meeting that we had when these regulations were achieved by voting.
“The position of the drivers was quite uniform among them. They were all pushing for some changes in qualifying in order to enjoy the driving more, to push more, but they were also pushing for us to address certain safety concerns they had, so they were quite united, and their input in this was very important.”
With Miami coming up next weekend, drivers, fans and all relevant figures in F1 will be waiting with intrigue to see if the changes make any difference to the entertainment element.
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