In an exclusive interview with Pit Debrief, former F1 driver Ralph Firman shared his thoughts on the 2026 regulations, which have received mixed reactions from both drivers and fans.
Firman, who raced in F1 with Jordan during the 2003 season and remains a fan of the sport, admitted he has some reservations about the latest generation of cars.
“I really like the old regulations,” he said. “I thought they’ve done an amazing job with setting out the development structures where the top teams get less development and ones at the back get more and it was all coming together quite well.”
Firman added: “I get why they wanted to change the aero package of the car to try and make racing a bit better, closer; I’m not sure it’s quite worked.”
Asked by Pit Debrief what he makes of the 2026 regulations, Firman pointed to comments made earlier this season by Lando Norris as an example of why he believes F1 risks taking too much control away from the drivers.
“I’m not such a fan of the electrical deployment…” he admitted.
“I think when Lando said ‘I didn’t mean to overtake,’ I think that’s when you have to take a bit of a look at it. When the driver is not fully in charge of when power is deployed and when you’re overtaking I think it’s a recipe for potentially a disaster.”
In Japan, Haas driver Ollie Bearman suffered a heavy crash as he took evasive action to avoid the significantly slower Alpine of Franco Colapinto, with the speed differential dictated by battery levels on the respective cars.
Firman: Super clipping under F1 2026 regulations reduces the spectacle and challenge for the drivers
Firman remained optimistic that F1 will take steps to reduce super clipping and improve the spectacle of racing under 2026 regulations. The FIA introduced some tweaks at the Miami GP earlier this month, following consultations.
“But it looks like they’re going to change it,” Firman said. “If they can keep the battery deployed on most of the straight so there’s not so much super clipping I think it’d be a better spectacle again.”
Nevertheless, he lamented the reduced challenge of legendary high-speed corners such as Suzuka’s 130R, as well as other aspects of racing where a driver’s skill and technique could make a difference, now dulled by advanced software and complex battery mechanisms.
Firman continued: “I think when you start to have super clipping and lift off, especially around all these super high speed challenging corners like 130R—even though that’s flat out mostly now since they changed it with Allan McNish’s crash—and also the first corner at Suzuka where it’s incredibly challenging where drivers can make a bit of a difference…
“They seem to have lost that with these current generation of cars which I think it’s a shame from a spectacle point of view but also from a driver’s challenge as well. Medium speed corners obviously they’re still all a big massive challenge because they haven’t changed, but the super high speed stuff has changed a bit and hopefully they’ll come back to.
“And I think it’s one of the reasons they might have jumped ahead and started saying they’re going to change the V8 engines as quickly as possible because they realise it’s maybe not as popular as it was before. I’m sure they’ll find a way around it for the next couple of years and it won’t look as bad when they get going.”
