Everything Red Bull's Max Verstappen said in 2023 about the 2026 regulations has come true:
Then there was this from reigning drivers champion Lando Norris, with the McLaren racer saying Monday after the Japanese Grand Prix:
“Honestly some of the racing, I didn’t even want to overtake Lewis [Hamilton, Ferrari]. It’s just that my battery deploys, I don’t want it to deploy, but I can’t control it. So, I overtake him, and then I have no battery left, so he just flies past. This is not racing, this is yo-yoing. Even though [Hamilton] says it’s not, it is yo-yoing.”
My take: FIA and F1 might have to step in at some point and make some adjustments to the budgets this season, and the number of upgrades a constructor can make if it wants to have a competitive season. Like Norris said, there has been more overtaking, but it takes so much for the car to do it, the positions just reverse back within a couple turns, which skews the number of overtake events.
THE ASYLUM
Prophet Verstappen
Everything Red Bull's Max Verstappen said in 2023 about the 2026 regulations has come true:
Then there was this from reigning drivers champion Lando Norris, with the McLaren racer saying Monday after the Japanese Grand Prix:
“Honestly some of the racing, I didn’t even want to overtake Lewis [Hamilton, Ferrari]. It’s just that my battery deploys, I don’t want it to deploy, but I can’t control it. So, I overtake him, and then I have no battery left, so he just flies past. This is not racing, this is yo-yoing. Even though [Hamilton] says it’s not, it is yo-yoing.”
My take: FIA and F1 might have to step in at some point and make some adjustments to the budgets this season, and the number of upgrades a constructor can make if it wants to have a competitive season. Like Norris said, there has been more overtaking, but it takes so much for the car to do it, the positions just reverse back within a couple turns, which skews the number of overtake events.
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