Regulation changes, a balance sheet: in qualifying it is still not possible to push to the maximum and the speed difference when overtaking remains worrying

First test bed for the changes: how did it go? After several consultations between the FIA, F1, engineers and teams and after also listening to the drivers, on April 20th the long list of changes to the regulations that would come into force starting from the Miami Grand Prix was published. According to the intentions evoked in the document, there were three main objectives to be achieved: – “driving more at the limit in qualifying” – “less dependence on energy management in qualifying and in the race” – “reducing approach speeds when overtaking”. Were the points hit in Miami? From the drivers’ words, a small step forward is evident, but some aspects remain rather worrying… Kimi Antonelli: “More natural qualifying, but enormous approach speeds when overtaking” “Qualifying seems better, more natural. As far as races are concerned, the approach speed is enormous and you have to trust whoever is defending because with this active aerodynamics the car is quite lazy when you want to change direction and you have to think in advance. And you also have to trust the driver who is defending you. But in any case it was a small step in the right direction and we will see what happens next.” Lando Norris: “Small step, but pushing hard in qualifying is still penalizing” “The topic was addressed well, it’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s not yet at the level F1 should be. In qualifying, as we said, if you go to the limit everywhere and try to push like in past years, you still get penalized for it. You can’t go full throttle everywhere. You should never be penalized for this kind of thing and instead that’s the case. Honestly, I think it’s something that can’t be done.” solve. Unless we get rid of the battery. Hopefully in a few years it will be like this.” Oscar Piastri: “The speed difference in overtaking remains crazy” “I think that reducing the energy collection limit in qualifying helped a little. It didn’t solve the problem, but it was a help. The races are practically identical, honestly the overtaking is crazy. At a certain point George Russell was 1 second behind me and managed to overtake me at the end of that straight, and this is a bit random. The closing speeds are enormous and trying to anticipate them when you have to defend yourself is very difficult. And I myself found myself doing the same maneuver, this time attacking, five laps later, simply because of this speed difference. From this point of view not much has changed. The collaboration between the FIA and F1 has been good, but only some things can be changed with the hardware we have. In the future we will need other changes, the big question is how quickly we can do it.” Max Verstappen: “In qualifying, the faster you go in the corners, the more you are penalized on the straight” “My Red Bull is a little better now. But what I thought about the regulations remains current. In qualifying you still have to slow down in some places to go fast. It’s still not what I would like it to be. The faster you go in the corner, the slower you go on the next straight: it’s penalizing and it shouldn’t be like that. Having said that, my car works a little better now, it’s less stressful to drive.” Carlos Sainz: “There is still a lot to do both in qualifying and in the race” “The good race? Thanks to the circuit, not to the changes to the regulations. There were some overtakings and the race was fun, but I believe there is still a lot to do both in qualifying and in the race. I am happy with the proactive approach of the FIA ​​and FOM in listening to us and continuing to improve.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-04 20:18:00