Martin Brundle has issued a plea for Formula 1 to “get rid of this concept” of regulations “as soon as possible”, due to the damage it is causing to the reputation of classic, high-speed circuits.
The 50/50 hybrid power units brought in by the new regulations cycle, beginning this year, have triggered a plethora of polarising opinions, with many drivers calling for more simplicity.
A high level of criticism so early in the season caused the FIA and F1 to implement various changes by Round 4 in Miami, and announced a shift back towards combustion power from 2027.
But the basic premise of the ruleset will remain until the next set of regulations is scheduled to come in – expected to be in 2031 – where it is possible that there will be a return to V8 power, as per FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s revelations in Miami.
With F1 already a complicated sport to master, drivers have had to become even more tuned-into their cars, with the management of energy critical to success.
But Sky F1 commentator and pundit Brundle believes most of the grid are finding the regulations problematic, and spoke of his sadness that circuits, such as Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps – host of last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix – are being “hurt” by the current iteration of racing.
“I think they’re all struggling to really fully understand it, to be honest,” he said. “I’ve got a bit of a tear in my eye because we’ve lost all the great corners at Silverstone, and here we are at Spa with the same situation.
“These new regulations hurt us on the high-speed circuits. We’re doing something about it for ’27 and ’28, and we have to get rid of this concept as soon as possible in 2030 or 2031.
“That aside, this is what we’ve got. When I’m out on track on a Friday, [I think] ‘wow, they look fast’, and when they’re side by side and ducking and diving, it looks a lot of fun to watch.
“But for now, they’ve got to get on top of the complexities, and there are a lot of them.”
Welcome to the ‘jungle’ – F1 in 2026
Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps totally exposed the shortcomings in the regulations, and the warning was issued by Max Verstappen in Austria, revealing he had been reduced to “just laughing” in the simulator when he realised how much slower he’d be going at the British GP circuit.
And his views on the regulations reared their head again after the race at Spa, in which he briefly led on Lap 1, only for his Red Bull’s powertrain to see him lose position.
“Then I went through Eau Rouge, I looked at my battery status like ‘well that’s going to be a difficult run to Les Combes!” he said of reaching the end of the Kemmel straight to media, including Motorsport Week.
“I expected, of course, Kimi to come by and then I look in my mirror and I just saw a red rocket coming.
“I was like ‘oh I’ll just hold my line because if I move here we’re gonna have an aeroplane shunt’!”
When asked about the incident later, Verstappen remarked: “Yeah I mean – welcome to a Formula 1 ’26 – sometimes it can be a jungle.”
Antonelli also found the situation baffling, recounting the same situation after taking his sixth win of the season.
“It was crazy. To be fair, I was so confused of what was happening because Max came flying past me before Eau Rouge and then I passed him back, but then I saw Charles had almost come alongside me and I was like ‘what the heck is happening?!’ like I had no clue.”
F1 will be glad of the likely respite as this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix will no doubt see more pure racing, due to the Hungaroring’s slow, tight and twisty layout.
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