P1 with Matt and Tommy - What F1 fans like about the new regulations

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Join us for the first of our two-parter about F1’s new regulations, as we look into some of their undeniable benefits. From more varied overtaking to tricky driving and some amazing-looking cars, there’s plenty to like - so let's try and stay positive!Sign up to our Patreon for just $5 a month! You'll get access to every P1 episode ad-free, extended versions of every 2026 race review, early access to tickets & merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now: http://patreon.com/mattp1tommyFollow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It's time for positivity. It's time to look up Formula One with some rose tinted glasses. Isn't that right, Tommy? We're going to talk about the 2026 regulations. And we're going to try and extract some positives from this season. Let's see how difficult that is. Are we feeling positive today?

I am. normally I'm the negative one but actually the realist the realist sorry sorry the the yeah the not the optimistic realist that's right that was what it was wasn't it no I actually think that

there's a lot of negativity around the new rules but when you kind of dive into the positives it's not all doom and gloom sometimes it's hard to look at the positives because you get so caught up in the negatives but actually I think there's a decent amount to talk about but of course we will do the negatives as well afterwards. Yes, we're going to do two separate podcasts. We'll start with the positives.

Because look, the blueprints, there are things within the regulations that I do genuinely think can be fixed and can be turned around to make some good racing. So we've got one from me, one from Tommy, and then lots from you to discuss. Now, before we get into what we like about the regulations, I had one of the strangest emails I've ever seen come into the P1 inbox. from Ben Jackson, who, I am not kidding, has created the P1 logo out of sheep. Now, this is not AI. This is not AI as far as I am aware here. No, you send the video of him doing it.

As much as, yeah, I saw the screenshot initially and I was like, come on, come on. And then the drone footage came in. And this is from, he's in Australia as well. and this is kind of like a little bit of a hype for the P1 live shows in Australia. And I just wanted to share it. I think this is insane. What is going on that we've had sheep turn into a P1 logo? That is crazy.

I couldn't believe when we got this email. You just messaged me on WhatsApp going, someone's made the P1 logo out of sheep. I was like, what? The first message I received this morning was that. And yeah, shout out to his handle on Instagram is a electric postman and he's arranged sheep and he's said if there's any Australian agricultural enthusiasts out there who tune into your show they'll enjoy it.

Well, we enjoyed it anyway. I think just general people. Normal people would very much enjoy that. I love it. Ben, could you now do one that says get your Australia P1 Live show tickets now? I don't know how many sheep you'll need for that. That would be great for the second one. At ticks.com slash P1 Live.

Exactly. Shameless promotion. HTT. No, no, no, no, no, come on. Let's not ruin it. But thank you so much, Ben, for submitting that. It's absolutely ridiculous. Right. Let's get into our suggestions of things that we like about the 2026 regulations. And I am going to begin and say that I like the concept of tactical battery deployment. Now, I like something to do with the battery. Yes. And I know this is a big negative and there are things around it that are negative. But we're going to go with positive today. And I the concept of it, right, the, the,

the Kerr's like thing. If you've never seen Kerr's, the kinetic energy recovery system, I believe it was, back in the day, sort of like

2011-ish kind of time, wasn't it? Or maybe slightly earlier than that. Oh, nine. I don't know when it ended and then DRS came in. Maybe it was 2011

where it ended. Either all, yeah, that kind of late 2000s era was, yeah, essentially, the driver had a certain

amount of battery to deploy, Was it seven seconds? There's something around that mark. And they could deploy it whether they wanted to attack or defend. It's just a bit of a boost to help you with either. Now, when we saw the regulations and this, obviously, the bigger reliance on the battery and all of this boost mode, etc., etc., I thought, okay, it could well be very similar. So the idea behind it, I like.

I like the fact that the drivers can have a say in when they deploy their energy. Now, the problem lies with the fact of there is so much reliance of it that the idea gets thrown in the bin at this point. It's nowhere near where I think it should be. And that's just purely because of the 50-50 split at the moment and what the current cars are. So as much as I have sort of, you know, I am going to also touch upon, you know, I'm not going to go, I love the battery because I don't. But I like that, yeah, the tactical side of it, I think, has a lot of potential. It just needs to have less reliance on it. I agree, because I think push to pass in IndyCar works very well.

It's something that we've always said about DRS is that it was great and it was needed in Formula One, particularly in the era of the dirty air cars, but the problem was you were kind of defenseless. So in theory, if they tweak it to get it, it's never going to be absolutely perfect. There's so many different scenarios in Formula One. And, you know, some cars are quicker, some cars are slower. The race is always ever changing. It's a bit like DRS zones and how it was never the perfect solution every single week. But you're right. The concept of it is really good. And if you, if they can fine tune it where you can use it to defend as well as attack. It's going to make for much better racing because you're not just completely defenseless and people are just breezing past you and you've got nothing to kind

of fight back with. So I do agree of the concept of the tactical battery deployment. And it kind leads into my one a little bit, which I'll go into now, which is seeing overtakes at different parts of the track. Now that is something that I was really hoping would happen. And I can't say that it hasn't because you look at what we've seen so far, particularly in that first race. And you know, George Russell and Charlotte-Claire were passing. Yes, they were passing and repassing each other constantly. But I do think that it's going to be a case of you're seeing them at different parts of the track overtaking. And that is much better than them waiting for that DRS zone all the time. That was such a disappointing part of Formula One for me. The moves that I

always remember are those things like where Alonzo overtook Hamilton at the hairpin in Bahrain because it was so unexpected because we were so ingrained of just wait for the DRS zone and some DRS passes were great but it would always be in that same zone and again a lot of the heavy lifting this season has been thanks to Ferrari and those two battling China is another great example they were passing and repassing each other in so many different parts of the track. It wasn't just wait for the straight, go past.

You were seeing them going to different corners. I mean, when have we ever seen an overtake into the final corner in China? Normally they'd just wait for the next straight. And we saw that a few times. We're seeing overtakes everywhere. So that's a positive that I've seen with this, that we're seeing not just zone overtakes. indeed um yeah it's kind kind of loosely linked as you say with my point um because

yeah drivers can decide to just just absolutely just deplete the battery and in i think we saw it in australia right uh and and this is purely down i would say to the drivers and teams not really knowing what to do at this point like an australia in particular it was amazing to see russell and the two ferrari's fighting like it was just like what the hell are we watching this is not Formula One. Formula One is three overtakes and that's it across the entire field. So to see just random overtakes in random places was pretty shocking, if anything, if anything else. And then I guess, I don't know if it's a problem or not,

but the amount of time they lost depleting the battery in certain areas was, they were losing two, two and a half seconds of lap fighting. And it wasn't even like they were going side by side every corner. It was more the fact that they were running out of battery in the least optimal place possible. My worry going forward, you're saying about that. My worry going forward is that is this just a case of the teams don't know what they're doing at the moment? And we saw maybe a little bit of this in Japan where is it? Because I think obviously Max has very outspoken about it, shock, with this battle with GASley,

but also Lando with his battle with Hamilton, whether six, seven races down the line if nothing changes, people will literally go, there is literally no point overtaking, because at this moment, they make these moves, but they know they're going to get repassed, and it's great entertainment,

and you're watching people repass each other, but you do wonder, as the team sort of learn and understand, whether they will get a bit boring with it and just go, well actually there's no point because according to the data and as you say when you're battling you lose so much time that you're just bringing everyone else into play that actually i really hope that it doesn't go down that line of well the computer says that the optimal thing is to actually just

wait behind another car a bit like we saw in previous years gone by of just wait for the pit stops because then you can get the offset of tires or or do an undercut well yeah i mean it it has the potential to be the don't let's not bother fighting times a hundred because of the amount of time that that you lose but the thing is positive so should should they tweak don't worry I'm getting there it can't all be roses in this one all right you know we're in dire we're in a dire state right now um but in in terms of if they were to take out some of the reliance of the battery then I think that there are opportunities for drivers to just go for it in a random place and then there's not as much battery for the other

driver to try and get them back. I don't know. I'm obviously speaking in sort of, you know, in a dreamland right now and we don't exactly know how it would play out, but, you know, less reliance on the battery means that maybe there would be opportunity to just go for it and then be like, maybe I'll be able to hold on. So, yeah, let's see how it goes. But I don't think there, with no tweaks, I think very quickly there will be a, there's no point overtaking. We saw it with Max. We saw it with Max.

And yeah, he tried it. He got through and then was passed immediately afterwards and then thought, well, I'll just sit behind him now. And just, I'll just try on the last lap because it's the only way because then you pass the line. And then we get to last lap overtakes. And I think that's a very dangerous place to be. But positives is that they're looking at it. They're going to make some changes, hopefully.

God, imagine they've had, you know, all these meetings that we don't really know much about at the moment. and then they change nothing going into Miami. That would be quite bad. I would imagine they're going to make some changes. But it depends how much, how broad how broadly they can change things. They have these cars now. Like how much of a change can they make without making them 10 seconds slower,

which I imagine they don't want to do. And Formula One will look at this on a very surface level and go, well, actually, a bit like that whole graphic that riled everyone up of, well, actually, we're getting loads of overtakes and social media will always complain about everything anyway, which I don't think is the right way approach to do it because it's quite clear that a lot of fans are unhappy and you need to listen to fans and drivers to make tweaks,

but you do wonder how much. They're going to watch this one. F1 are going to watch the one that says what F1 fans like about. It's going to be like the TV direction all over again. Come on, P1. P1 is saying they're amazing. That's why I'm putting a sprinkle of negativity into the positive. Next one is from a fan. and this one is from Camacho 2505.

The chassis and aeroregs are actually quite good. Cars look more twitchy, like back in the good days, you can actually see the drivers fighting the car. This one 100% agree. Don't make it negative, don't make it negative. No, it's a good thing. So again, the blueprints. Let's have a challenge of not saying that after every single point.

The blueprints, right, are there for this. You do see the drivers fighting the car and can actually save the car. That is a really good positive. If... Don't mention the power unit. Don't mention the battery. Don't mention the superclipping becomes less of a thing. Then this would be great.

If we actually have the drivers like full push for 90% of the lap, that's all I want. 90% of the lap, they can have a little superclip if they want. but not too much give yourself a little super club and then they will yeah just a little one but they're pushing the car then this would be awesome

because that's what we've been calling for for ages is that the cars in recent years have become boats and they were just planted to the floor and you'd see barely any especially from the top cars barely any struggle

from the driver in terms of managing the beast whereas I think this is genuinely a really big positive that they've stripped back the arrow and obviously got rid of ground effect. We just need to push more forward with that. And we need to get back to the drivers pushing fully. I know that we won't see that in races.

We won't because tyres will always be a thing. We didn't either. Yeah. But on Saturdays we did. And now that's been taken away from us. But no, positive! Positive! The chassis is actually quite good.

I think it's very good. The chassis and the aeroregs, I think, are great. I think the cars look absolutely. fantastic. If you, you know, this is the thing, I'm not going to say, but, but if you, if you put, if you replace the power unit, and this is the thing, like the power unit is clearly the main part of the whole Formula One, but they could have easily done all this and kept the same kind of aero regs and chassis and they haven't.

And that's a good thing because I think the, the, the, the, the whole kind of look of the cars is so, so, so much better. As you said about how they look planted, I remember seeing, you know, you've seen so many clips and you can look at the last year's cars around really high speed sections and think they look incredible as they're flying through corners and that's absolutely true. But there are certain other tracks as well. I saw a clip of someone shared of Baku and they look absolutely awful. that they're kind of, they're so, they look like boats and they look so sluggish and,

and there's no, there's no like fighting the car, they look kind of enormous and heavy, like you're driving a massive, like, tank around the corners. And now, you are seeing the fact that they do look much more nimble. Of course, we're not seeing that as much in things like qualifying and stuff at all because of the super clipping. But if they sort that side out, I think these, this chassis and. aeroreg it's actually really really good because they look great on track and they're much better to watch from that side of things when they're when they're kind of passing each other and things

because they just look a lot nicer and it feels more like they are fighting the car and how many times in the old era did we see where they just talked constantly about as soon as you lose a tiny piece of the floor it's game over or a tiny bit of aerowash and the whole whole car's completely useless and you can't do anything and you're sliding off and you can't save it now the amount of times that we've seen someone get on the power and actually fight and save the car we're yet yet to see what they do in the in the wet conditions but it is something that we've said many times of less grip is actually quite a good a good thing because you want to see the drivers fight you want them to feel like the heroes that they are and show their supreme car

control and show that they are the best 22 drivers in the world. Well, well, they're the best 22. There's always going to be some money here. Let's go to another one from P1 Patreon member Patrick. It's made the race starts even more exciting. Again, saved by Ferrari mainly. But also McLaren, McLaren as well in that last race. I do really like the fact that the starts, there's so much anticipation.

don't say bat, don't say back, don't say back, don't say back. I'm going to say back. Ah, we need a forfeit every time we say back. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's almost, there's, it's kind of a weird balance of the reason the starts for exciting is because it's kind of farcical and the fact that some people are really unable to start the cars properly and the power units are far too complex.

And some people are so slow off the line and loads of people are stalling and having problems getting away. we've had to change the whole start sequence just to get them off the line which I don't think should happen. I don't either. I don't think we should have any pre 10-second race start. Exactly.

Because Ferrari wouldn't literally not have to turn off a platform. But then the argument, but then the argument is Ferrari have built a great car based on the regulations to be able to do it. So I think in that sense, it is exciting that you get a big mix-up of the grid and it's not just, you know you're seeing cars swap positions some people get great starts and maybe fall back later in the race

and then because that's how they've kind of designed their their turbo and and that stuff does make it actually quite exciting with the fact that people have done different ideas and certain teams have can absolutely nail starts but then aren't as quick in the race and that makes it exciting because then it's not just a procession So you know what these regulations have done? They have given us a little insight as to what a cheeky little reverse grid top eight looks like because qualifying means nothing basically because Mercedes get pole and then lose it

because of Ferrari and McLaren. And yeah, it does make, of course, the race starts more exciting but also the races themselves because it puts the non-fastest car at the front which is what we always want. But then, oh God, I said, but. I did it again. I did it again. That's not what Formula One really is, though, is it?

You know, we shouldn't be qualifying on a Saturday to put the fastest car on the grid only because the complexity of the engine is something that, I don't know, it's, there's parts of me that goes, again, positive that Ferrari McLaren, they've done a really good job in understanding these very complex, difficult machines and an engine power unit. And Mercedes haven't got a hold of that just yet. So I guess, yeah, the positive,

Because I'm just thinking, like, if I'm sat here being told in the future, back in 2025, like, so 2026, you're going to have hundreds of overtakes. You're going to have Ferrari taking the lead in two of the three races. I'll be like, where do I sign? Because on paper, it sounds great. But I guess a lot of us Formula One fans want it to feel valuable. Right. We want an overtake to feel valuable. We want a race start where the leader doesn't make it into term one first, valuable, not an expected thing.

So that's where I think a lot of us sit in a very weird, strange place where we're going, this is all we've ever dreamed of, but it doesn't feel right. But now it's too much. And yeah, it's kind of wrong. And I do sympathize with F1 a little bit where the window of amazing F1 is actually quite small. You know, in a football match, whatever, you get five goals. you're like, ah, it's a banger. We saw loads of goals.

But like, it is like in football of going, oh, there's too many nil-nils and there's not enough goals. So let's get rid of the goalkeepers. Yeah. And now we're getting loads of goals. And now every game is like eight all. Yeah. And then you go, oh, that should be good because every game is eight all and like 10, seven and stuff.

But then, but it doesn't, yeah, but it doesn't feel like football. So it kind of loses it. Oh, what great analogy that was? I don't even watch football. And I just brought it up. Why do I not like say tennis? or golf like I actually do those things. Anyway, so yeah, that's my kind of

thinking on the race starts is yeah, it is more exciting. There are positives, but again, I don't know, there's part of me that goes, and I guess it kind of again, Saturday was such a heralded, you know, holy thing for all of us, right? Saturdays was the special thing. And then it almost feels the worth of it

has gone down even more with the fact that there are these farcical starts to some degree. But then again, It stops Mercedes leading from lights to flag. So let's not change it. And Ferrari are strong. So there you go. Next one comes in from grumpy car nut.

Races are no longer a procession. That is true. Mercedes take 20 laps to get through and then they win. So, I don't know. I did a sarcastic negative then. What am I doing? This is a positive thing that again, if I was to put myself in 2024 or 2023,

the Maxisdabans winning everything would I take this? I mean last year when we're talking about how the cars just nothing happened. Quality of races last year were not great, were they? There weren't, I can't really put many bangers at all on the plate of 2025. Yes, races aren't a longer a procession.

That is true and that is something that I want to continue because again, you know, I'm talking about what would I say in the past? What about what I say in the future if all the teams now figure out what they're doing and we get 2025 kind of races, but with the 2026 regs. I mean, Japan, yeah, we had a bit of a mix-up at the start,

but Japan wasn't a great race. And I do feel like more of those kind of races are going to come along, should there not be any tweaks that hopefully Formula One, the FIA, are going to make. But it is definitely a positive that the Sunday races, two of the three of them, I would say, have been very exciting, albeit we've been questioning whether we should be liking them. Yeah, completely, completely agree with that because if you'd have said last year, we were sat here at the end of the season going,

I can't wait to get rid of these cars, the dirty air is atrocious, the too heavy, it's basically Formula One of, it's decided at the first corner. and nothing else happens the whole race. You can't overtake how many races we had. It's going back to the previous question, have you said, where there is such a narrow window in Formula One, and we've had kind of one end of the scale was the Japanese Grand Prix last year, where Max put it on pole, he led into turn one,

he was in a much lower car compared to the McLaren's. The McLaren's were much quicker, but you could not pass, because the cars are too wide. There was so much aerial wash and you just couldn't get past. The dirty air was far too much and you saw Max and the two McLarence.

The whole race just like almost like Monaco vibes. And you saw that as so many tracks this year, even ones you feel like you could overtake at. And then yet you go to a case like this year's race at Japan and it's completely different. They're passing each other. left, right and centre, but we're kind of going,

oh, but they're just flying past with the battery and then overtaking. So you kind of need that like perfect middle ground, which to Formula One's kind of, not credit, try to think of the right word. Defense. That is incredibly hard to do,

to get it absolutely perfect. And there's going to be no like one perfect thing for everyone. But it is so hard because you've almost gone like the extreme, completely extreme the other way. And now there's so much action and entertainment, but as we were saying, it kind of feels artificial and there's so much reliance on the

whole power unit and battery that you're kind of getting motorway overtakes. And even though it's cool that you're saying them at different parts of the track, they're just flying past each other and people have nothing, like, they can't do anything about it. So

you've got almost like the complete opposite end. Yes, this is definitely a positive. And what is kind of what you would rather take, because I'm sat here and I am, the new regulations, there are a lot of negatives and it's, it is painful to watch sometimes and it feels like the sport is being sanitised and I look at it. Have we moved on to the things we hate about the new relations? Sorry, no, no, no. I thought I thought we're to the next podcast, that was a lot of negatives. I will move on to positives.

But, yeah, you look at it and go, oh, this, for all our complaints, is it better than last year? I don't know. It might be because last year was so poor. The racing was bad. Yes, I, don't get me wrong. Loved qualifying.

Loved the championship battle and that drama provided. But the racing was, pretty abysmal last year you were right in saying I can't remember a year gone by where you almost didn't get a single banging race and it feels like that was kind of the thing last year that

you just didn't see any crazy exciting races yeah and we've had Australia and China were just ridiculous in a lot of ways so yeah 105 over tanks as the graphics said

yeah ridiculous in positive and negative. That's what I'll say. Right for that one. And then another suggestion comes in in P1, Patreon member, Cole. Active Aero looks cool. I love the way that they said that. It almost feels like they're shrugging when they say it. Like, I don't know, the active Aero looks pretty cool. Like, you know, I guess. Yeah, it does. It does look, it does look cool. The cars look better. I don't say bad, don't say bad. But the... No, no, don't do it. More positives. More positives.

It does look cool. The problem with the active arrow again is the fact that they're not controlling it. And that is something we'll get into in the next podcast. But it does look kind of cool watching it. Obviously, Ferrari's innovation that they've not actually used, the Macarena Wing is quite fun. So you kind of got that preseason of seeing how, and I guess you get that in all regulations,

of people trying different things and seeing how much they can bend the rules. And some people like that side of Formula One and really value it, that every car's different. Every car, you know, it's a bit like going back to how we talk about the race starts, that some people have gone for, let's go for really small turbos, so we get great starts. Some people have gone for, you know, massive turbos, and it makes them better in the race and things like that.

So there's so many different kind of innovations. That was something that people didn't like about last year, that it was almost people were saying, like, oh, is it becoming almost like a spec series? Because it was almost like, this is the car it's meant to look like. They all kind of look the same. whereas you can kind of say that

you know they are being a bit a bit different this year and the active arrow is a kind of cool thing to watch but I can't sit here and think it's the best thing ever I'd be like. Tommy you ruined it you could have just said it looks cool

and then shrugged and it does look cool but it also kills the slipstream so oh yeah I mean look the active arrow is a is a cool innovative thing and I like the fact that there are differences between teams, that it has to exist.

If it didn't, we would be going a lot slower because of the battery. We'd have mega clipping. Yeah. Oh, mega, super duper clipping. Super duper.

Yeah, this is kind of a small thing, right? Like, I don't really care what they look like as long as we get good racing. And it's real racing. So I am intrigued to see if we do see the macarona wing for Ferrari. again Ferrari carrying the season once again shock if they bring it out for Monza

maybe this is the Monza spec wing and they've been testing it out this entire time for one race to make sure they win we'll see but yeah it's a cool thing but it's not not game changing for me personally and that is it we've done it we've done the likes Tommy

next next time we'll be fully unleashed for basically what myself Tommy and all of you lot don't like about regulations. We might even say hate because some things I do hate about these regulations. And we will get into it. But this has been a lovely, positive, wonderful, fantastic podcast-ish.

Maybe we'll have a butt counter because I think it might have been... Puts counter is wild. Tommy, get your mind up the gutter. What are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are for all the kind of... for all the butts that we've been saying, we're looking at this and talking about the positives, the good thing is that I do think it's salvageable.

It's not like this whole thing is absolutely ruined, and it's quite clear, and this will kind of roll into when we do the negative ones because I think a lot of the talk is going to be about that power unit and, you know, the problem's there. I love it. I love the power unit. But it shows that there are, you know, you look on social media and the talk and you just think everything's awful about the regs.

But when you actually deep dive into it like we've done here, there are many positives to take away. And it kind of gives me hope that you can see the fact that they can make tweaks, hopefully here and there, a big tweak in the whole power unit. But there are things there are in place, you know, like we like the fact that we're getting more overtake. the aeroregs, the cars look cool, we're seeing overtakes, things like that, is a good thing. So there are definitely positives there and I think it's a nice reminder that they do exist. Indeed, indeed, yeah, I think F1 is salvageable. This season, we can save it together as the Formula One community. Maybe not. I don't think they're listening to us.

But I've got us another butt. Add another one to the counter. Yeah, we'll see. I think it'll take time. I think we'll take time. I don't think Miami will be, you know, this, this. crazy. Because again, like whatever tweaks they make, they're then going to have to test those tweaks. This is like a season of testing. So make that what you will. We'll be here no matter what. We will share our opinions, no matter what, whether they're positive or negative, as you can clearly tell. And that is it. We'll see you very soon. Lots of love. Take care. Sweet dreams. Next up,

what we hate about them. Bye. Bye. Goodbye. But. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST creator network.