![](\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=Drtvers%2C+Australian+GP+2026&photo_copyright=%C2%A9+McLaren&photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fraces%2Fpaus26%2Fsun%2Fmcl%2Fdrivers5-lg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDrtvers, Australian GP 2026
\u00a9 McLaren<\/p>\n
The FIA is set to hold an online meeting with drivers before that date – a notable shift given long-standing complaints that competitors have little influence over rule-making.<\/p>\n
GPDA chairman Alex Wurz says the level of engagement among drivers is unprecedented.<\/p>\n
The famous drivers’ WhatsApp group has basically exploded. The chat is more active than ever before. I’ve rarely seen it so active, he said.<\/p>\n
The drivers are expressing emotions, they’re proposing different solutions, technical solutions, and we’re discussing how we can convince everyone that the drivers need to be heard.<\/p>\n
GPDA director Carlos Sainz agrees the current process risks being too team-driven.<\/p>\n
It’s a problem if you only listen to the teams. They might find the racing okay because they enjoy how it looks on television, he said.<\/p>\n
But from the perspective of a driver competing against others and realising that there can be a speed difference of 50kph, that’s not really racing.<\/p>\n
Sainz urged officials to act quickly, even if only in stages.<\/p>\n
“I really hope they listen to us and focus on the feedback we’ve given them, instead of just listening to the teams, and that they develop a plan for Miami that improves the situation, as well as a plan for the medium-term future of these regulations to further improve them.<\/p>\n
Even if you can’t improve everything before the race in Miami, you should at least take another step before Miami and then a big step, maybe next year or later in the season.<\/p>\n
However, FIA single-seater boss Nikolas Tombazis insists the situation is not as severe as some suggest.<\/p>\n
It’s not like we’re discussing a complete rewrite, he said.<\/p>\n
“We believe the patient is not in intensive care – the patient needs to just eat a couple of apples per day, not to have an open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n
There are topics from both the drivability and the safety point of view that we need to address. Equally, I don’t like to say on the other extreme ‘It’s all a mess.’<\/p>\n
Tombazis acknowledged concerns following Oliver Bearman’s high-speed Suzuka crash, linked to extreme closing speeds under the new energy management rules.<\/p>\n
Every accident at high speed is always a little bit of a shock, he said.<\/p>\n
To say it was expected would be wrong but the closing speeds had been identified as a risk.<\/p>\n
(GMM) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APRIL 13, 2026 Formula 1 drivers are being formally drawn into discussions about the controversial 2026 regulations ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[2226,3769,3798,3825,3812,3756,3757,3806,3846,1205,3833,3778,3782,49,48,581,95,3788,3820,3811,578,3753,3818,3763,3018,930,3754,576,580,577,3781,3790,3808,3758,3759,3751,3822,3801,3774,3823,3840,3827,3847,3800,3844,3750,3752,3772,2454,3789,3775,3765,3784,3768,3814,3780,3761,3794,3850,3803,3792,932,3795,3777,3843,3845,3824,3773,590,3760,3834,3837,3810,3836,3797,2338,3842,2475,3815,3785,3019,3764,3802,3786,3805,3828,582,3755,1882,3829,3771,3793,3807,3783,3841,3799,3014,3762,3796,3766,3779,3835,3838,3849,3839,82,3831,3832,3816,3776,3830,926,3787,3848,3819,3826,3809,3767,3770,3791,1196,3817,3813,3821,3804],"class_list":["post-601925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-adrian-sutil","tag-albers","tag-alesi","tag-ammermuller","tag-autoracing","tag-autos","tag-badoer","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-benetton","tag-bruno-senna","tag-button","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cars","tag-china","tag-david-coulthard","tag-davidson","tag-doornbos","tag-f1","tag-f1-racing","tag-fauzy","tag-felipe-massa","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-ferrari","tag-fia","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-giancarlo-fisichella","tag-gilles-villeneuve","tag-glock","tag-grand-prix","tag-grandprix","tag-grandprix-com","tag-hakkinen","tag-hamilton","tag-heikki-kovalainen","tag-hill","tag-hockenheim","tag-honda","tag-hungary","tag-ide","tag-indianapolis","tag-inside-f1","tag-insidef1-com","tag-jaime-alguesuari","tag-japan","tag-jaques-villeneuve","tag-jarno-trulli","tag-jenson-button","tag-juan-pablo-montoya","tag-kamui-kobayashi","tag-karthikeyan","tag-karun-chandhok","tag-kimi-raikkonen","tag-klien","tag-korea","tag-kovalainen","tag-kubica","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-liuzzi","tag-lucas-di-grassi","tag-magny-cours","tag-malaysia","tag-mansell","tag-mark-webber","tag-mclaren","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-minardi","tag-monaco","tag-montagny","tag-monte-carlo","tag-monteiro","tag-montreal","tag-monza","tag-motorsport","tag-nakajima","tag-nick-heidfeld","tag-nico-hulkenberg","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-paffett","tag-pedro-de-la-rosa","tag-piquet","tag-prost","tag-racing","tag-racingcars","tag-red-bull","tag-renault","tag-robert-kubica","tag-rosberg","tag-rossiter","tag-rubens-barrichello","tag-san-marino","tag-sato","tag-sauber","tag-schumacher","tag-scott-speed","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sebastien-buemi","tag-senna","tag-silverstone","tag-singapore","tag-spa","tag-sports","tag-spyker","tag-super-aguri","tag-sutil","tag-timo-glock","tag-toro-rosso","tag-toyota","tag-trulli","tag-turkey","tag-valles","tag-verstappen","tag-vettel","tag-vitaly-petrov","tag-vitantonio-liuzzi","tag-webber","tag-williams","tag-winkelhock","tag-wurz","tag-yamamoto","tag-zonta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}