FIA determined to ensure 2026 rules don’t create an F1 ‘chess game’

Amidst fears that rules overhaul will lead to drivers facing a higher workload instead of simply racing, the FIA insists this is not the case.

Following simulator tests a number of drivers, including Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon, have spoken out, warning that the new generation of cars are “too complex”, while Williams boss James Vowles has said that drivers face a tougher workload.

Thankfully, DRS is out, only to be replaced by the equally gimmicky Manual Override Mode, while other innovations include energy management systems and (legal) active aero.

As opposed to elbows out racing it is feared that drivers will spend Sunday afternoons managing their cars and dealing with the numerous newly introduced innovations.

Not so, insists the FIA’s Single-Seater Director, Nikolas Tombazis.

“Albon and other drivers haven’t driven the final rules yet,” he tells Motorsport.com, “because they’re not done yet. Secondly, for sure if you don’t automate certain parts, there will be an increased burden on the drivers. That is true.

“Part of the work that still needs to be done between now and the start of next season is to determine how much of that stuff will be in the background,” he continues, “let’s say more automatic, versus how much the driver will have to control.

“We don’t want to overburden the driver with something. But at the same time there has to be a degree of freedom, to make sure that he can attack, defend and have some of that stuff under his control.

“But there will, for sure, be some part of it which will be managed transparently to him, so he doesn’t have to think about it when cornering or something like that.

“I think there’s a balance to strike between driving like a chess game of energy management, which we don’t want as one extreme, and then the other extreme where driving is just a steering wheel, a throttle pedal and a brake pedal. We need to find a good way in the middle.

“I think smart drivers already prevail,” he says. “The difference in performance that we see nowadays in F1 includes a percentage of that. And that’s not only now, the mental bandwidth of drivers has been a factor for the last 20 years already, also in the younger days of my career, when I was working with Schumacher for example.

“Obviously he was phenomenally talented, but a big part of what set him apart was that he could also think of all these other things during a race.

“Amongst the current drivers there are some who seem to have a bit extra to think about other things as well, while some others have to use all their CPU to drive the car.

“These drivers are the best drivers in the world, and they have quite a high bandwidth of intellect. They can deal with certain problems,” he insists.

“There’s a level of understanding they need to have of these parameters,” he admits. “We think that’s part of what a top driver has to do. It’s not, however, and we will make sure it isn’t, the main skill. The main skill is still to be able to brake at the right point, to go fast around the corner, to find the limit, select the right lines, etc. That will still be the main parameter that controls who’s good and who’s bad. I wouldn’t be able to drive the car!”

Whether the cars are indeed “too complex” and the drivers do indeed face a tougher workload aside, the most worrying aspect about all this – other than the fact that it would appear that the drivers have had little or no input – is that with just five months to go before the first test in Barcelona, the regulations appear to be a work in progress with certain aspects being ‘made up’ along the way.