Belgian Grand Prix: George Russell ‘infuriated’ by straight-line issue that leaves him ‘powerless’
Verstappen’s words are a reflection of F1 as a sport realizing that current engines are flawed and mistakes have been made in the regulatory process.
Steps have already been taken this year to improve the situation, and more will be taken over the next two years, with the ratio of internal combustion to electric power being adjusted in two steps from 50:50 to closer to 60:40 by 2028.
Williams driver Carlos Sainz said: “No one enjoys qualifying as much as last year. It’s clear we’ve lost quite a bit with these cars around Spa.”
“However, I don’t want to continue to belittle my own sport because that won’t do any good.
“We all know it’s not good enough, it needs to change, it will change, it will improve. “Hopefully next year it will be one step better, next year it will be better and next year it will be better.
“But there are people who see these simulations in 2022 and 2023 and look at it and say, ‘How can we accept this?’ Are there people who cannot say? “We need to review what happened there because it should never have happened.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the rules had both positive and negative aspects, with the changing states of electrical charge and the ability of drivers to choose when to distribute energy leading to a significant increase in overtaking, even if it was not what most would consider “pure racing”.
Stella said: “Some circuits, especially those that are long and very demanding in terms of electrical energy, change character. We need to accept this.
“Some improvements were implemented at the beginning of the season to minimize this. They made the situation a little bit better. But it is important that we implement the changes in 2027 to see these trades come back. This will not happen completely because there will be some limitations in terms of energy distribution. So we will have to get used to it somehow.
“On the other side, we will have to see what we can (do) continue to gradually improve in the power unit regulations, so that we can keep the character of some of the tough corners, if you don’t approach fast the corner is no longer a corner, because at 280/290 km/h it can be a corner, but when you approach at 270 km/h it becomes a straight corner and it is relatively easy.”
“These rules have also introduced some new features to the way we race. Some may like it, some may not. But we are seeing a lot of crossover. And that crossover is the flip side of energy starvation, if you will.”
“So there are several aspects; some of them will be developed, some of them will be preserved.”
