The new Formula 1 season finally kicked off this weekend. After weeks of questions, doubts, and criticism surrounding the revised regulations, and especially the heavy reliance on battery power, the test days were already filled with debate. Verstappen even called it \u201cFormula E on steroids,\u201d while Norris, who previously argued that drivers like Verstappen shouldn\u2019t complain because of their salaries, quickly walked back his comments and ultimately agreed with Verstappen\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those who have followed the sport for years, none of this came as a surprise. Verstappen warned back in 2023 that the new regulations would cause major problems. This weekend proved he was absolutely right. But according to Stefano Domenicali, drivers aren\u2019t allowed to complain, they should simply accept it, just like the watching F1 fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qualifying: a battle against the battery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n During testing it became clear that drivers were suddenly losing huge amounts of speed on the long straights, often well before the braking point. This phenomenon is known as super\u2011clipping. It happens when the battery is fully depleted while the driver is still flat\u2011out. With no electrical energy left, the power drops off abruptly and the cars lose tens of kilometers per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melbourne was no different. Before the fast chicane of Turns 9 and 10, drivers were sometimes losing 50 km\/h before they even touched the brakes. On TV it immediately looked wrong. Formula 1, and especially qualifying, is supposed to be the moment when drivers push to the absolute limit, without restrictions. But instead of going flat\u2011out, they were busy managing their battery rather than setting the fastest lap. As Norris put it: \u201cYou have to look at the steering wheel every three seconds to see what the battery is doing and where you need to brake, otherwise you\u2019ll end up off the track.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russell ultimately took pole by a comfortable margin, but his time was over 3.5 seconds slower than last year. In some parts of the circuit, Formula 2 was actually faster, simply because F1 drivers had no battery power left at the end of the straights. Mercedes understandably had nothing to complain about. The rest of the grid, however, clearly sees that this is not what Formula 1 is supposed to be. During the drivers\u2019 meeting, nearly everyone was highly critical. Norris even called these the worst F1 cars ever: \u201cWe\u2019ve gone from the best cars in Formula 1 history to probably the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rainbow Road Grand Prix in Melbourne<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After a disastrous Saturday, Sunday didn\u2019t get much better. These days we even have a kind of pre\u2011start to warm up the turbos, something that has no place in Formula 1. When the lights went out, Lawson immediately got an error on his steering wheel and didn\u2019t move. Colapinto, arriving at full speed behind him, only just managed to avoid a collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On top of that, several drivers didn\u2019t even have a fully charged battery at the start of the race. The needlessly complicated technology F1 has imposed on itself was exposed right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The start itself was decent, with a fight between Ferrari and Mercedes, but that was mostly because drivers were still figuring out how to approach this race at all. The battle for the lead quickly turned into a constant yo\u2011yo effect: batteries drained one by one, and overtakes happened almost exclusively on simple straights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because everything now depends on boosts and battery management, late\u2011braking overtakes are a thing of the past. Moves like Verstappen on Leclerc in Austria 2019 are gone. And Ricciardo\u2019s legendary double overtake in Baku, achieved by braking impossibly late, that too is history now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, Formula 1 has turned into a kind of Mario Kart, where you take turns using a \u201cmushroom\u201d to pass someone on a straight. The Formula 1 of screaming V10s and brutal overtakes is definitively gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Less battery, more racing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Formula 1 is now far too influenced by everything surrounding the sport, with the drivers themselves being the exception. The new battery rules were introduced mainly to please manufacturers like Audi and Ford, and to create more \u201caction\u201d for the Drive to Survive audience. That became painfully clear when F1 posted a shameless graphic after the race about the number of overtakes, which, ironically, was still lower than Formula E in Monaco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n