- 2026 F1 rules draw fire from ex-world champions, yet numbers tell different story.
- Domenicali argues that the 1980s turbo era also tested and challenged the drivers.
- F1 CEO says managing resources was always an F1 skill, and it’s not new in 2026.
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has defended the sport’s contentious 2026 regulations, arguing that critics suffer from a short memory.
Speaking exclusively to Autosport in London, he pointed to the 1980s turbo era as proof that fuel management and tactical restraint have always been part of the sport’s DNA.
His argument is simple: the racing of the decade that many fans romanticise most was never the flat-out spectacle they now claim to miss.
The storm the new rules have created
The 2026 regulations represent the most radical technical overhaul in recent F1 history. The power unit now draws on an almost equal split between the combustion engine and an expanded hybrid system.
The cars are smaller and lighter, carry less downforce, run on advanced sustainable fuels, and use active aerodynamics.
Commercially, the intent has worked. Audi, Ford and Cadillac have all entered the picture. Honda reversed its decision to leave the sport entirely.
But inside the paddock, the mood has been considerably less celebratory.
Lewis Hamilton argued the power unit’s energy management requirements are too complex to explain to fans sitting at home.
Max Verstappen went further, comparing the new machines to “Formula E cars on steroids.”
Fernando Alonso raised a separate concern, warning that driver skill risks being buried under a pile of system management.
Verstappen also criticised the aggressive lift-and-coast strategies that drivers must use to replenish their batteries, arguing it strips the sport of its competitive soul.
What the numbers say
Three races in, however, the raw data tells a different story from the one the critics are narrating.
Across the opening three grands prix of the season, 149 overtaking moves were officially recorded. In the equivalent races a year earlier, that figure stood at 63.
That is a 152.97% increase, roughly 2.5 times the action from 2025. The Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka recorded the sharpest single-race jump, up 278% compared to the previous year.
The mechanism driving that surge is a phenomenon called “super clipping.”
When a car runs through its battery reserves on a straight, the electrical boost disappears, and the car suddenly drops up to 50 km/h in speed.
Any following car still carrying electrical energy can pounce immediately. Critics have labelled this “yo-yo” racing.
A driver makes a pass, burns through his battery doing so, and then gets re-passed on the very next straight by the driver he just overtook.
It is the kind of overtaking that has drawn the sharpest objections, and it is precisely the kind Domenicali chose to defend.
“An overtake is an overtake”, says Domenicali
Domenicali did not sidestep the criticism. He walked directly into it.
“You know, overtaking, some people are saying it is artificial. What is artificial? An overtake is an overtake,” he told Autosport.
“And people have a short memory. Because in the turbo age in the 80s, I was already following quite well, Formula 1, the lift and coast are using different turbos, different speeds. And you have to save in racing, because otherwise the fuel tank was too small. You couldn’t have the time.”
He pressed the point further.
“Maybe some of the old people are criticising or having some comments, have a short memory. So, look back in the 80s, at the turbo time, these things were there.“
He also drew a parallel with DRS, the drag reduction system that ran until last year.
Fans initially dismissed it as artificial, yet it kept the racing watchable during an era when cars simply could not follow each other closely.
His broader argument was not that the 2026 rules are perfect. It was that the sport has always made compromises, and the ones being made now are not new.
Domenicali also told The Race: “Sustainable fuel, and a V8, I think, is great. And hybridisation is, I do believe, the next step of the future.”
Fan polling, he said, appears to agree, with 86% approval for a V8 or V10 paired with sustainable fuel.
The turbo era, revisited
The 1980s Domenicali invokes were extraordinary by almost any measure.
Turbocharged engines pushed power figures past 1,000 hp by the middle of the decade, more than double what naturally aspirated units had produced a decade earlier.
The noise was savage. The speed was barely believable. But the fuel constraints were equally severe, and they shaped every race.
In 1983, a car carried 250 litres to start a grand prix. That figure dropped to 220 litres for the 1984 and 1985 seasons. By 1986 and 1987, the limit was down to 195 litres, with refuelling banned throughout.
A driver who pushed too hard, too early, paid for it with a coasting car and an empty tank.
It happened regularly. Drivers were frequently seen weaving through the final lap, trying to slosh the last drops of fuel into the engine.
Keke Rosberg ran dry more than once during the 1986 season. Alain Prost managed it race after race with such precision that he earned the nickname “The Professor.”
The crucial difference between then and now is that no one knew. Team communications were scrambled. Fans in the grandstands had no idea their favourite drivers were lifting, coasting and conserving.
The instruction was happening inside the cockpit, out of earshot, hidden behind the spectacle of the cars.
Today, those radio messages are broadcast. The mechanics of the strategy are visible. And so, for many fans, it feels new when in truth, it is very old.
Three races old, and asking for patience
Domenicali is not claiming the 2026 era has arrived fully formed and without flaw. He is asking for time and for perspective.
The sport is three races into what is meant to be a generation-defining chapter.
The manufacturers who came for these rules have barely begun understanding their cars. Even the drivers who are criticising loudest are still learning what these cars can do.
His message to the paddock, to the pundits, and to the fans is the same: this has all happened before.
The fuel saving, the coasting, the restraint forced on drivers chasing a finish line they were not sure they could reach, none of it is new.
The 1980s were full of it. The cars just looked different, and nobody had a microphone pointed at the radio.
