The new F1 rules explained – Will thunderstorms affect the Miami Grand Prix?

追加: 2026-05-03

[00:00:01][music] [music] [music] >> Welcome to a new episode of the F1 update from the Miami paddock in the middle of the Hard Rock Stadium after the media day ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. The first media day after the April break and therefore, of course, a media day that has mostly been about the tweaks to the regulations.

[00:00:39]The FIA always said they would evaluate it after the Japanese Grand Prix. That has happened, but it's not a revolution. Nicholas Tombazis said it's a evolution, not a revolution. Also, because both F1 and the FIA, and you can disagree with that, and I think a lot of people watching this video and lots of people in the comments probably will, but both F1 and the FIA, they feel that the racing itself has been quite entertaining and that it did not require a knee-jerk reaction. Stefano Domenicali, who we talked to over the break, he literally said "F1 does not have a problem. F1 is in great shape, so we didn't need to change the racing itself. We just had to address some concerns." And those concerns mainly related around qualifying to try and make qualifying a little bit more flat out again.

[00:01:26]And the closing speeds that of course played a significant role in the Oliver Bearman crash. Having said that, Oliver Bearman during the break also pointed to Franco Colapinto and Colapinto slightly moving to the left. Today I asked Franco um for his reaction and he said, "Well, I basically texted Ollie Bearman after the Japanese Grand Prix and he did not reply." So, Franco was quite disappointed to see Ollie yeah, coming out in the media and talking about what happened on track. He said he could have replied to me directly instead of doing it in the media. Having said that, the closing speeds played a magnificent role and together with qualifying, those have been the yeah, the key areas to address. That happened with three main changes to the energy management. The first one already basically suggested by Andrea Stella in Bahrain.

[00:02:18]Super clipping to the full 350 kilowatts in both qualifying and the race. The second one is just for qualifying, reducing the harvesting limit from eight megajoules to seven. And then the third one, and that's the one to address the closing speeds, that's on the MGU-K deployment. It means capping the boost button. And also on what the FIA calls non-key acceleration zones, the MGU-K deployment will be limited from 350 kilowatts to 250. Having said that, it will not fundamentally change the package. And that's also what most F1 drivers told us today, including Max Verstappen. He's been quite vocal about the regulations. But since then, he's been at the table with the FIA and F1.

[00:03:01]And he said, "Well, this has been a step in the right direction. Above all, that they kind of listen to us now." But he said the tweaks are just a tickle and they will not fundamentally change the package.

[00:03:13]The Aston Martin drivers went a lot further. Fernando Alonso, who by the way said that around the summer he will yeah, decide about his future and maybe staying in F1 one more year or not. But Fernando Alonso said, "Well, these regulations reward going slower through the corners and that will not change because it's fundamental to the regs.

[00:03:32]And therefore, he's still not the biggest fan of it." His teammate, Lance Stroll, went a lot further than that.

[00:03:38]And Lance said, "I've been driving F3 cars over the break and they are a thousand times more enjoyable than Formula 1." After he said that, I put to Lance, "Okay, these tweaks probably will not help, but do you think that something can be done for the upcoming years? Or is it like Max said before, are the regulations just fundamentally flawed?" And then Lance said, "The regulations are so fundamentally flawed." So, he basically is not really enjoying Formula 1.

[00:04:06]Doesn't mean that he will walk away from the sport because he said, "No, I'm still my mission is to get more competitive with Aston Martin."

[00:04:14]And he replied, "If I will see a green car winning in three or four years from now, and I will be on the couch, I will not be happy." So, he he will stay around, but of course, this is not the direction that he wants to see from Formula 1.

[00:04:27]Even more because he said, "During the break, I watched some videos from 20, 30 years ago. Then I compare to what we have now and it's just very sad to see."

[00:04:37]Um that on the regulation tweaks. A second main topic today has been the weather.

[00:04:43]A lot of talk about potential thunderstorms on Sunday and what that would mean for the race, especially because here we've got some local laws saying that if lightning is within eight kilometers of the of the track, then people should find shelter. That could have consequences for the race, but I just talked to the FIA and they said, "Well, people should not get too excited." Or maybe the opposite, maybe they should stay excited for the race because the FIA said, "We have a plan." That's the action plan that they came up with last year. And that plan is still in place. And that means that the race will in their view not be canceled. If anything, it will be disrupted and they can show the red flag.

[00:05:22]But they said, "Well, looking at our own systems, the weather system, we see a 40% chance of rain for Sunday."

[00:05:30]There were some reports on 90%, but the FIA thinks that's not really accurate anymore, but they will monitor the situation. And they think for now, the race is still good to go ahead. Having said that, it will still be a significant challenge for everyone because if it rains, it will be the first time that these cars, the new generation of cars, will race in wet conditions and that brings some safety concerns. Kimi Antonelli talked about a couple of those. He said, "Well, first of all, you have the um the temperature of the tire blankets."

[00:06:01]The FIA addressed that for the intermediate, but Kimi said we should also look at that for the for the full wets. The second thing is about the amount of electrical power. The FIA already had has taken some measures. The one is uh disabling the boost button fully in wet conditions. The second one is that they can limit the limit the MGU-K deployment from 350 kilowatt to 250. But Carlos Sainz said, "Well, that's still something to look at." And the third factor that Carlos mentioned has to do with the active aerodynamics.

[00:06:32]So, with the straight mode, in wet conditions, that will be partially disabled. It means that at the rear of the car, they will not have the straight line mode, but at the front, they will.

[00:06:42]And Carlos said to me, "It doesn't make sense because with the front wing, you cannot reduce the amount of drag significantly, so why do we take that risk?" I also put that to the FIA and they said, "Well, we we base that on simulations because we think that energy consumption can be high in those conditions and therefore, they still think that will be the best compromise." They also pointed out that it's not the same for every team because it relates to your design of the front wing. And they said, "Well, the amount of drag and the amount of downforce they lose is different for each team on the grid. So, it's also related to some conscious design choices that teams have made." That's all to be continued over the weekend. Finally, we have to talk about the competitive picture. Of course, the break also meant that all teams had opportunities to yeah, develop their cars and that the competitive picture might change. We talked about that to George Russell and he said, "Well, I know that our advantage will not be there forever. The others will catch up, both in terms of PU understanding and also with the upgrades." But he said, "I do not expect any drastic changes for Miami." That means Mercedes still very much the favorite. Having said that, all teams, including Mercedes, have brought upgrades here. Andrea Stella already told us that McLaren basically brought an all new car. But he added that all the other teams, in his opinion, have done the same. So, the development race is in full swing. Stella is also right because if you look at some of the teams on the grid, it's a similar story, including Red Bull. They have done a filming day at Silverstone.

[00:08:18]And also, they've tested their own version of the Macarena wing that we've seen on the Ferrari so far. So, Red Bull also bringing a big package here. But the team principal, Laurent Mekies, said, "We think it will improve the situation.

[00:08:31]We think we have a better understanding of our issues, but do not expect any miracles." And finally, that's also the line we got from Aston Martin.

[00:08:40]At Aston Martin, a lot of focus has been on the vibrations on the Honda power unit. Interesting is that after the Japanese Grand Prix, they left one of the Aston Martin cars in Japan in in Sakura, so Honda's facility, to basically look at the vibrations because Honda because Honda explained that they couldn't see the vibrations on the test bench and they only became apparent when the power unit got integrated into the chassis. So, having an actual car in Sakura basically helped their understanding. Intriguing bit is that they even put Honda people inside the car to feel the vibrations themselves.

[00:09:17]Well, based on all of that, Honda came up with countermeasures. They are quite confident that the vibrations are heavily reduced and that it should be better this weekend. Having said that, also on the performance side, they have a lot a lot of work to do and that will take a lot longer than just one race weekend. So, hopefully Miami will be a step in the in the right direction with reliability, but the performance side, also together with the aduo, so the safety nets for the power unit, that will be a longer-term project. That will all be continued later on this weekend.

[00:09:48]So, for now, thanks a lot for watching and hope to see you again tomorrow.

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