F1's urgent mid-season rule changes explained

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Formula 1 has made changes, or as the FIA calls them, refinements to the power unit charging and deployment rules designed to encourage flatout driving in qualifying and tackle some of the safety concerns. But John Noble, does it go far enough? I think if people were expecting a revolution today from this team boss meeting, it wasn't going to happen. This was always about making tweaks to energy levels, adjusting deployment, harvesting patterns, um, discharge patterns, all those elements. And that's what's come into play. It's a step in the right direction. Will it cure everything? No.

[00:00:33]But I think it's the right move for now and gives us hope that we can get back pretty close to flatout qualifying.

[00:00:40]>> Exactly. Well, they can't redesign the engines overnight. So, they are lumbered with the the hardware and the limitations. But there's several key areas that they've made tweaks and first we're going to talk about those particularly impacting qualifying. Now John, they've said that the harvesting limit per lap in qualifying is now set to 7 megajoules having been 8 megajoules. It could even be a little bit more than that, but that's a 1 megle reduction. And also now super clipping, which is when you're on full throttle, but you're harvesting that now has been increased to 350 kW when before it was 250 kW. So the theory is much more pushing and less having to slow down in qualifying. To put it simply, even if there's a very very slight lap time sacrifice, >> yeah, the simple aim is to stop drivers having to harvest much energy in qualifying. Drivers were frustrated about lifting and coasting, were frustrated about super clipping.

[00:01:34]Qualifying wasn't the flatout blast it was in the past. So, by limiting the recharge limit, you limit the opportunities to harvest because it doesn't give you any benefit. By increasing super clipping, you deter drivers from lift and coast because now it's more beneficial to super clip because if you're doing it full throttle at the end of a straight, you've also got your active arrow open. So the car is not slowing down. So it's very efficient way now. So combined together, this should get qualifying not back perfect, not back to what it was in the past, but fairly close to being flat out and much more towards the challenge of a single lap out and out push and know more about can I harvest more energy in this corner to save some battery and be quicker on a straight that's half a lap away. Yeah. And of course in terms of the impact on lap time, there's there's a slight impact but not very much. And what it does mean is because obviously your primary way of harvesting is on the brakes and then you get a little bit from the part throttle stuff when you're going through corners before you're up to full throttle. But the FIA says they reckon that it means the super clipping will be 2 to 4 seconds varies depending on the circuit on top of that to get you to that harvesting level. So that's not too disruptive. There's still going to be some areas where you're not running at full power with with full deployments. There's still going to be some super clipping, but it is at least mitigated.

[00:02:57]>> Yeah, the batteries aren't big enough to be flat out everywhere. So, you cannot escape the fact that you are still going to be energy starved to a level. It's what level that's pitched at. In terms of lap times, there was always going to be a compromise. You can't give cars less energy and expect them to be as quick as they were before. So, there will be a hit. From analysis that I saw from Suzuka, I saw some team simulations. If you go from 8 megajoules down to 7 megajles, the loss was about 7/10 of a second. But if you went down to six, it jumped nearly to 2 seconds.

[00:03:26]So it's quite a big difference. So there was some talk that potentially they could go down to six. But in the end, I think they've gone for seven because the the speed drop off one less than one second in qualifying. You've got to be a fairly sharp eye to notice that difference. Yeah. Yeah. And it should mean a slightly less curious shape of speed on the straights and slightly reduce the amount you're having to to harvest in the fast corners. I personally don't think it's going to be a complete revolution. It's not solving it entirely, but it is at least a step in the right direction and you're fundamentally limited by what the hardware is. So, it's kind of a good pragmatic approach I think particularly that that super clipping change, but we've also got changes in terms of the safety. So we've got the the maximum power is 350 kW in terms of the the earth's deployment but there are going to be circumstances in which that's limited now aren't there? Yes. So one of the key aims was to address this problem of big closing speeds between cars highlighted by Ollie Bman's being caught out by Franco Colipinto in Japan a big crash and one of the task and priorities of the FIN teams was to address these high closing speeds which are caused by one car having zero energy and in Ollie Bareman's case having near maximum deployment which triggers a 50 kilometer offset. That's not very safe if you're not expecting it. So what they've done, they've they've changed a few little tweaks to the regulations. One would be 150 kW maximum allowance from boost based on what your current power is. So that's >> and the boost is the push button. Give me all you got, isn't it?

[00:04:59]>> Yeah. So the boost is, you know, what you'll use to a bit of extra power either to defend or to overtake. So it'll be 150 kW limit over the power you're getting from your IC. So it should stop any unexpected surges, but also be some variation. So you can only have 350 kW primarily in straits. Uh so accelerate out of corners down to the braking zones and those areas that aren't obvious straits. So corners. So the section in Suzuka for example where Bman crashed, these will be pulled back to 250 kW maximum deployment which should further minimize the chances of offset. It's about making sure cars are more predictable when you're racing them and that when there is an offset it's not as big as we saw in Japan.

[00:05:42]>> Exactly. So there will be still an effect there, but it it's reducing the most extreme cases, which again is a a pragmatic move and and that safety argument is something that drivers have been very very keen on seeing being tackled. Now we also have the race starts. There's going to be an MGUK, for one of a better phrase, it's almost an anti-stall system, isn't it? They're going to monitor if you are slower away than you should be, and then if you are slower away, you will get a kick of MGUK power to get you going. Whereas, of course, normally you're limited in terms of K deployment at the start. So, this will mitigate so you're not just sat there not moving. And this is stuff that's going to be tested in Miami, isn't it? Yeah, starts have been a big issue with these cars. Spooling the turbo up. Um, we see Audi have big problems. Max Vstappen's made some poor starts this year. The starts are very inconsistent and when they go wrong, they tend to go badly wrong. And some concerns that stranded cars at some point, Franco Colipino had a lucky escape with Liam Lawson in Australia.

[00:06:40]some point there was a big risk of an accident. So what happens now is that if there'll be what's known as a a low power start detection mode that if it's activated by the car once it's released its clutch, there will be some allowance to use the MGUK that you can't have before. And interestingly, because we know there's plenty of loopholes in these regulations, and teams love jumping on these loopholes for performance gains, as we saw the Mercedes and Red Bull qualifying trick, they will ensure that if this mode is activated with the MGUK off the line, it doesn't give you a performance advantage because I could guarantee if the teams had worked out, actually, if we have a bad start and use the MGK, we can get a great launch, they would have all gone for it.

[00:07:17]>> Absolutely. Yeah. And they are also looking at well ways to make the the the lights on the rear of the car and the lateral lights a little bit more clear and emphatic in terms of what's going on with with harvesting and launches and that kind of thing. So this is all to give drivers that little bit of extra early warning. Now it's it as I mentioned that is being tested in Miami and it'll be adopted I guess as early as Miami if if when it's tested it works well. But that might be a bit more down the line mightn't it? Yeah, I think starts is something that needs refinement, needs checking, it does actually work because you don't get a second chance. If the system doesn't work and goes badly wrong, then the consequences on a Sunday can be quite dramatic. So, it is sensible that these changes are tested, see if they work.

[00:08:04]Maybe we'll have to simulate some poor starts. Maybe drivers will be requested the end of a practice session to make some botch starts and see what happens and see what the implications are. But the FI has been quite sharp on race starts this season. We had the new start procedure come in before the first race tested in Bahrain. The new 5-second pre-arts with the blue flashing lights.

[00:08:24]Ferrari don't like it because obviously they designed their power unit, the smaller turbo around the original uh regulations, but safety is absolutely critical. So, we've had the first step with the pre-start. This will be the next step. And hopefully there's also a learning spell for the drivers and teams. they can get their starts more consistent and we can avoid the risk of any trouble.

[00:08:44]>> And the concern that we've not actually seen play out yet is how these cars and specifically the power units will behave in wet conditions. And they have put a cap on the earth's power. They haven't actually said how much that will be, but it's basically reduced deployment in order to mean that you're not having sudden big amounts of torque and wheels spinning all over the place and losing control. So that's going to just calm everything down in wet conditions. And on top of that, they've also got an increase in the intermediate tire blanket temperatures to make sure the grips there when you bolt them on, say after a pit stop.

[00:09:16]>> Yeah, wet weather had been one of the big uncertainties at the start of this season. There was one wet day during the preseason test at Barcelona. Um, only Ferrari and Red Bull decided to run that day. Ended Hajar had that huge crash at the final corner. Uh, I spoke to someone who was there running on the day and they said it hadn't been a a pretty sight with these cars. the torque curves power deployment really very very difficult in the wet and I think this is something drivers had been concerned about if we suddenly had a wet conditions how would these cars go how they behave were they safe enough so this has been pushed to the the top of the agenda as part of the discussions between the drivers and the FIA so there'll be the power tweaks warmer intermediate tires um changes to the lights as well because we see these flashing lights in the back of cars can be confusing about what's going on what does this flashing light I mean, how does it work in the wet? Uh, so I think a raft of changes to improve on that front, but I still think whatever happens when we get our first wet running, it's going to be a big adventure for everybody.

[00:10:16]>> Yeah. But the good thing is at least they've acted before encountering that, which is something that perhaps could have been done with quite a lot of aspects of these regulations. But very much to summarize that quote that Toto Wolf gave earlier today about it's more about taking a scalpel to it than a baseball bat, I think was the comparison he made. These are subtle changes. They are in the right direction. I would say they're not going to solve everything, but they're going to improve things. So, we'll find out in Miami how effective they are.