{"id":545990,"date":"2026-03-17T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545990\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:30:10","slug":"it-doesnt-feel-so-artificial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545990\/","title":{"rendered":"It “doesn’t feel so artificial”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc<\/a> reckons the new 2026 Formula 1 cars don\u2019t actually feel \u201cartificial\u201d despite several drivers strongly criticising the latest regulation overhaul.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cars this year are completely different than before, with the chassis being nimbler and having less downforce, while the power unit is more reliant on electrical energy with a near-50:50 split against the internal combustion engine.<\/p>\n

This has caused a difference in how the racing has looked across the opening two rounds of 2026 – Australia and China – with more wheel-to-wheel battles due to the \u2018yo-yo\u2019 style nature.<\/p>\n

During Sunday\u2019s Chinese Grand Prix, for example, a driver would often make an overtake at the Turn 14 hairpin before losing position again down the pit straight, with the battle then continuing through the lap.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen certainly isn\u2019t a fan of this, claiming those who enjoy it \u2018don\u2019t understand racing\u2019<\/a>, while the likes of Lando Norris<\/a>, Carlos Sainz<\/a> and Esteban Ocon<\/a> hold similar opinions.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

It is the increased reliance on battery management that they don\u2019t like, but those who have been fighting at the front, namely drivers of Mercedes<\/a> or Ferrari<\/a>, have been supporters of the new regs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy it and it doesn’t feel so artificial from inside the car,\u201d said Ferrari\u2019s Leclerc. \u201cOf course, you’ve got those overtakes where it’s artificial, whenever someone is doing a mistake with the battery and completely drains it and then, there’s a massive speed difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I feel like we are all converging a little bit towards knowing where shouldn’t we go and where can we try and take the risk and so, that creates very interesting overtaking places. I think today was the showing of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Sunday did show was wheel-to-wheel battles through the Turn 6-9 complex in Shanghai which hadn\u2019t really been witnessed before. This included the constant battle between Leclerc, his Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Mercedes man George Russell<\/a>, who were all constantly squabbling over positions second to fourth.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Although Leclerc was eventually the one to finish off the podium, he has still left China with a positive feeling given he\u2019s often claimed it to be one of his harder tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed it,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m not sure if you ask the team, they will reply the same. But, I really enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, these cars for races, it’s actually quite fun and yeah, it was just a cool race. At the end of the day, Lewis was just stronger and I’m happy for his podium. I’m, of course, disappointed for losing out on the podium on my side, but I know I’ve given everything and at the end of the day, Lewis was just stronger this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very fair, hard but fair battle, which was nice and then, there’s also a lot of tactics from inside the cockpit that is really cool. There was obviously this battle for who will get the overtake in the last corner and we both brake very early. And, the way you deploy and manage the energy, it was a fun race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Leclerc is speaking positively of the new regulations, he still thinks qualifying should improve because it doesn\u2019t reward drivers who are fully on the limit as much anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not those super high downforce cars that we used to have in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some things that we, of course, need to look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make it a little bit more Formula 1-like in qualifying because, I feel like there\u2019s something that we miss. But, I know the FIA is working on it and hopefully, we’ll find a solution for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc\u2019s fourth in Shanghai added to his third-placed result in the Melbourne opener, leaving him third in the championship and 17 points off leader George Russell.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc reckons the new 2026 Formula 1 cars don\u2019t actually feel \u201cartificial\u201d despite several drivers strongly criticising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,13275,270438,263305,817,264921,826,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-545990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-charles-leclerc-defends-f1-racing-in-2026-it-doesnt-feel-so-artificial","tag-chinese-gp","tag-f1","tag-f1-chinese-grand-prix","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}