Mansell very harsh against this F1: “Fake overtaking”. And he defends the 80s: “There was intelligence there. Now computers drive”

Back and forth The clash that ignites on the eve of the Miami weekend is one of those that we didn’t see coming, which doesn’t concern the track – at least not directly – but which could nevertheless cause some headaches for the F1 leaders. Do you remember the controversial statements of Stefano Domenicali, CEO of the Circus, who underlined how the current F1 “has no problem” and who rather accused the critics of the 2026 regulation of being “elderly people with short memories”, because “it was like that even in the 80s”? Well. A point-by-point response came from an ‘elder’ of a certain caliber: the 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell, a driver who was a symbol of the 80s for his courage and passion, much loved by many motorsport enthusiasts. In an interview given to the Autosport.com website and destined to spark discussion, Mansell debunked Domenicali’s statements, clearly criticizing the current F1: “I could get in trouble for saying it, but unfortunately some overtakings are completely false – ruled Mansell – in short, some seem fantastic. But then you come out of the next corner and the car speeds ahead of you while the other lags behind, because the computer gives you the extra power at the wrong time and the driver obviously doesn’t have control, otherwise he wouldn’t have used it. I think it was Lando who said: ‘Well, I didn’t want to overtake him going into the fast corner towards the chicane, but I had no choice’. I think we have to be very careful – warned the former Williams, Ferrari, Lotus and McLaren driver – because I know that many fans around the world are very unhappy and, to be honest with the fans, I agree with them.” Lift and coast to whom? The second point Mansell responded to is the comparison between what happened in the 1980s and what happens today. Comparing the current lift and coast to what drivers did 40 years ago was not appreciated by the English Lion: “If we lifted our foot from the accelerator and coasted, it was to dose the acceleration. Dosing the accelerator when you are in someone’s slipstream and decide not to overtake them means saving fuel. It’s an intelligent tactical move. Having to entrust the control of the car’s driving and battery charging to a computer is something completely different. And we didn’t slow down of 50 or 70 km/h going into the fastest corners. So it’s a bit risky to make that comparison. And I feel enormous sympathy for these drivers [guidare in F1] is very dangerous. And in Japan we have already escaped with a terrible accident. So it was luck, we could have gotten really hurt. Luckily the outcome [dell’incidente] It wasn’t as bad as it seemed.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-04-30 01:38:00