New F1 guidelines get distinctive reward: ‘It seems like the nice automobiles from 2016’

Haas’ Esteban Ocon says 2026’s controversial Components 1 equipment feels “like the nice automobiles of 2016” as they’re “quite a bit nicer by way of stability”.

F1’s radical rules overhaul has to this point been met with criticism from drivers and followers alike, significantly the 50/50 energy unit cut up between electrical power and combustion.

Reigning world champion Lando Norris stated final week in Australia that F1 had gone “from the very best automobiles, to the worst automobiles”, whereas Max Verstappen quipped on Thursday in China that he had been utilizing Mario Kart to arrange for the race.

However there have been some who’ve supplied extra constructive outlooks on the present equipment.

On Thursday, Haas driver Esteban Ocon stated the brand new automobiles really feel like 2016 equipment in how they deal with within the corners, whereas branding the rise in motion in Australia as “constructive”.

“I feel the constructive is how the automotive feels in corners,” he stated.

“I feel that is way more again to the way it was most likely like 2016, like the nice automobiles in 2016, like the highest automobiles.

“Positively, the best way you slide, the best way you possibly can assault the corners, it’s way more predictable and quite a bit nicer by way of stability and likewise by way of how the automotive rides general.

“So, to me that may be a step ahead to final yr. Then the opposite constructive within the race is that there was, even when they had been chaotic, extra motion.

“There was extra overtaking, extra battle wheel-to-wheel all through the race, which was positively constructive. Is it easy within the automotive? No.

“Can the driving force make sufficient of a distinction as a driving model to have the ability to make like chess strikes? No.

“And that is most likely the destructive in the intervening time. However I feel general that will most likely enhance all year long, and if that improves, it needs to be way more fulfilling.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc famous earlier on Thursday that he loved his battle with Australian Grand Prix winner George Russell in Melbourne, regardless of complaints that it was synthetic as a result of power harvesting at play.

With power ranges boosted for this weekend’s Chinese language Grand Prix, there may be anticipated to be much less of the maligned ‘superclipping’ seen in Australia.

The FIA additionally revealed final weekend that it’s going to consider potential modifications to the rules surrounding power deployment following the Shanghai occasion.