Daniel Burton

There are some real misunderstandings here about the grumbling surrounding the regulations. I’ve seen several voices claiming that people upset about the regs are just “sour grapes” because it looks like Mercedes will dominate. That’s a mistaken take. People and drivers are aggrieved and extremely disappointed in the inherent NATURE of the regulations, and how the cars must be driven (not driven, as the case may be), and how heinously offensive it is to watch. That will not change no matter what the development trajectory looks like. The product on track looks offensive. It’s awful. And it’s inherent to the nature of the regs - it’s not changing. Harvesting for such electrification means a permanent and unchangeable sacrifice of driver differentiation in high speed. That is obvious at this point, the needs of the regulation mandate this. There’s no room to engineer around this, physics is physics. And that is a damning, heinous thing to watch. It’s so anti-racing and so anti-F1 that it’s an exercise in cognitive dissonance watching an onboard. I hope to goodness that we all refuse to try and condition ourselves to accept this as “normal” or just “something to get used to”. It’s not about parity, it’s not about who is in front or behind. You may or may not believe me when I say that, but this product would be no better if Ferrari were 2 seconds ahead of everyone. This is not F1. And I hope there is a swift and decisive fix, and a colossal push toward regulatory overhaul by 2029 with turbo V8’s with mild hybrid assist (turbo lag mitigation) and sustainable fuels. That is the solution.

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