Liam Lawson at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
Photo: Clay Cross / PHOTOSPORT
The new Formula One engine and chassis regulations for the 2026 season have taken some of the bravery out of the sport, several drivers said ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, as teams grapple with the biggest rules overhaul in decades.
Last weekend’s season-opening race in Australia drew a mixed response from fans and drivers. Some praised an increase in overtakes due to new ‘Overtake’ and ‘Boost’ modes, while others compared the on-track action to racing video game Mario Kart.
With more power generated by electricity this season than from last year’s engines, there is greater emphasis on being tactical with energy deployment and regeneration.
That had led drivers to sometimes be best served by lifting off the throttle on high-speed straights and coasting into corners, rather than slamming on the brakes, to ensure they had sufficient battery to deploy elsewhere.
“We used to fight for our life,” twice world champion Fernando Alonso told a news conference on Thursday, including the Shanghai circuit’s fast and sweeping Turn 8 in a list of nail-biting corners from various tracks around the world.
“We were challenging the limits of the physics going through those corners, and the driver had to use all the skills and be brave in some moments as well,” he added.
Start of the 2026 Australian F1 Grand Prix.
Photo: www.photosport.nz
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc told reporters he had enjoyed racing Mercedes’ George Russell towards the beginning of last weekend’s race, which the Briton won, but agreed the regulations had changed what gave drivers an edge over the field.
“It’s a bit more strategic than it used to be in the past, where it was more who was braking later kind of battles,” the eight-times race winner from Monaco said.
“In the past, you could take quite a lot of risk and make an overtake work. Now, it’s always: ‘If I have this action now, what will happen in the next straight, in two straights time?'”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Williams driver Carlos Sainz sounded less impressed.
“It’s a very different kind of challenge. It’s not quite as simple as just who’s the bravest and who’s willing to carry the most speed,” Piastri said, when asked if he agreed with Alonso’s assessment.
“I got braver and braver in qualifying, and it made me slower and slower down the straights,” the Australian added, referring to his fifth-place lap that set the grid for his home race.
Sainz said the 2026 regulations needed a bit of a rethink to make the experience better for the drivers.
“I don’t like seeing the top speed decreasing in the middle of a straight … I don’t like having to lift and coast in the middle of a qualifying lap and I don’t like, let’s say, the racing that we saw in Melbourne … it’s not a real overtake of Formula One,” the Spaniard told reporters.
2025 Chinese F1 GP winner Oscar Piastri.
Photo: Eric Alonso / PHOTOSPORT
Statistics for the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, second round of the season and first sprint weekend:
Lap distance: 5.451km. Total distance: 305.066km (56 laps)
2025 pole position: Oscar Piastri (Australia) McLaren, one minute 30.641 seconds
2025 winner: Piastri
Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari, one minute and 32.238 seconds. (2004)
Start time: 2000 NZ/1500 local
China
The race made its debut in 2004 and returned in 2024 after a five-year absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eleven of 18 Chinese Grands Prix have been won from pole — and three of the last five – but the first seven were all won by different drivers.
The last four races in China have also been won by different drivers.
There is no Chinese driver on the starting grid. Zhou Guanyu is reserve driver for the new Cadillac team.
Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver with six wins (2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019).
Three other current drivers have won in China – Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2013, Max Verstappen in 2024 and Oscar Piastri last year.
Mercedes have won six times, Ferrari and McLaren four, Red Bull three. Red Bull’s first Formula One win was at the circuit in 2009.
The lowest winning grid slot in China is sixth for Daniel Ricciardo in 2018 and Schumacher in 2006 — when the seven-times world champion took his 91st and final victory in Formula One.
The track has two long straights and 16 turns and puts stress on the front tyres.
Hamilton has been on pole a record six times in China. Alonso, Verstappen and Piastri have also been on pole in Shanghai.
Championship
Mercedes’ George Russell leads the championship after winning the opening round in Australia.
Race wins
Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 381 starts.
Verstappen has won 71 grands prix and is third on the all-time list after Schumacher on 91.
Pole position
Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary in 2023.
Milestones
The 19-lap Saturday sprint race is the first of Formula One’s new era with the new engines and cars.
The sprint also marks one year since Ferrari last won anything in F1, the 2025 100km race won by Hamilton from pole position.
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad became the 70th driver, in Australia, to score on his F1 debut.
-Reuters