formula

F1’s technical changes pose challenges for drivers and engineers alike while raising concerns about the quality of racing.

Formula One’s new era ⁠starts at this weekend’s season-opening ⁠Australian Grand Prix, where teams will leap into the unknown and grapple with sweeping technical changes under race conditions for the first time.

F1 has simultaneously overhauled chassis and power unit regulations for the first time ⁠in decades, posing a challenge for drivers and engineers while raising concerns about the quality of racing.

With near-parity between electrical and combustion engines and cars running on 100 percent advanced sustainable fuel, drivers gained some insight into the changes during winter testing. But all ⁠are in the dark about how the reset will play out when going wheel-to-wheel on race day.

“I’m certainly more comfortable now than I was a couple of months ago with how to drive these cars and how to try and get the most out of them,” McLaren’s Oscar Piastri told reporters on Wednesday.

“But I think there’s still the saying of ‘You don’t know what you don’t know.’”

Australian Piastri said McLaren ‌thought they had the cars worked out two months ago, only to find they had “a whole bunch of stuff” they did not understand during winter testing.

With more power generated by electricity than last year’s engines, there is more emphasis on drivers needing to be tactical with energy deployment and regeneration.

The old drag reduction system has been replaced by a new overtake mode, giving extra power for overtaking.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen described the changes as “like Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing”.

Formula One Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali defended them and assured fans there will still be plenty of thrills.

The changes may have different effects at ⁠different circuits, leaving all teams to learn on the fly, week by week.

Piastri said Sunday’s race ⁠at Albert Park, a suburb of Melbourne, would probably showcase the more “unnatural” parts of driving.

“You know, a lot more lift and coast, a lot more kind of just driving to maximise the power unit,” he said.

“You’ve got power units that are reducing in power down the straights at different points. And there’s a lot of unknowns, ⁠a lot of challenges in there.”

The new regulations raised hopes of a more open championship and the prospect of a disruptor team emerging to force change at the top. But preseason testing in ⁠Bahrain hinted at a familiar top four, with Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and ⁠McLaren all performing well.

Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley said the gap between the “best and the rest” might only widen.

“I think it’s going to be a very different year in terms of the competitiveness in the sport,” he told the Reuters news agency. “We’re already seeing the gap between the fastest teams and the slowest teams but larger than it’s been ‌in the last few years.”

Whatever the pecking order, F1 race tracks will be more crowded with the addition of the new Cadillac team although there may be more breathing room at Albert Park, given Aston Martin’s preseason troubles.

Despite the technical guidance of Adrian ‌Newey, ‌who joined from Red Bull, the Honda-powered team completed few laps during winter testing and have reliability problems.

The AMR26 cars will be in Australia – something of a relief for F1 management – but may only race for a few laps before retiring.

Mercedes’ rivals have succeeded in securing a rule change following a pre-season technical row over engine performance.

Audi, Ferrari, Red Bull and Honda had been pushing for a change in the regulation governing compression ratios on the basis they believed Mercedes had secured an advantage through clever use of materials technology.

Formula 1’s governing body the FIA said on Saturday that a change to the way the compression ratio was measured would be introduced on 1 June, with a further revision for the 2027 season.

A statement said the rule change had been approved unanimously by all power-unit manufacturers.

The compression ratio is a measurement of the cylinder displacement between the two extremes of the piston stroke. Typically, an increase will lead to more power.

Some estimates of the gain Mercedes could be achieving have been as much as 0.3 seconds a lap, but Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has said it amounts to “a few horsepower – in England you would say a couple, which is more like two and three”.

The original rule stated the ratio would be limited to 16:1 in the new engine rules introduced this year – a change from 18:1 under the previous regulations – and this was measured at ambient temperature.

Mercedes’ rivals were pushing for the compression ratio to be measured at operating temperature.

The Mercedes engine has been measured by the FIA at both ambient and operating temperature and complied with the limit of 16:1 at all times, senior F1 insiders have told BBC Sport.

Compression ratios tend to decrease as an engine rises in temperature because of thermal expansion of the materials involved. The belief was Mercedes had found a more effective way to limit this loss than other manufacturers.

From 1 June, the compression ratio will be measured at 130C as well as ambient temperature, and from next year only at 130C.

That means that from next year, manufacturers will be able to have engines that exceed a compression ratio of 16:1 at ambient temperature, even though this reduction from the previous limit was introduced into the 2026 regulations to make the rules more appealing to new manufacturers.

Audi and Ford both entered F1 because they were attracted by the new power-unit rules, which introduce a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, and Honda reversed a decision to quit.

A statement from the FIA said: “A significant effort has been invested in finding a solution to the topic of compression ratio.

“The regulations introduced for 2026 represent one of the biggest changes in recent memory.

“All parties acknowledge that with the introduction of such significant regulatory changes, there are collective learnings to be taken from pre-season testing and the initial rounds of the 2026 championship.

“Further evaluation and technical checks on energy management matters are ongoing.”

This last sentence is a reference to discussions over energy deployment and recovery.

Drivers have complained that because cars are energy starved this has led to unusual and counter-intuitive driving techniques – and there are various proposals to change the rules to make energy management easier.