BRAVE F1 drivers FORCED changes for 2027 & 2028 | F1: FAR from PERFECT | FIA needs to ACT | SAVE F1

Soumil Arora (0:00)

Let's not kid ourselves, Formula One in 2026 is hardly perfect. If anything, it feels like one of the driest years in the history of the sport since 2014, and even that was a whole new low. Now, on paper, having a season where Lewis Hamilton wins with Ferrari, where we could see the youngest Formula One world champion, where we're seeing two fallen world champions struggling to make do, and one of them potentially even leaving their team, all of this makes for a very good story, but it hasn't quite been that way in real life. And it's clear Kunal, the batteries are causing a problem. We agreed to this set of regulations, we agreed to make it 50-50, we agreed to make the cars lighter and introduce the cost cap and everything that comes along with it to facilitate more manufacturers. Does our dream actually hold color and weight in real life? Do you think F1 2026 has delivered on what it promised?

Kunal Shah (0:55)

Wow, what an explosive start. There's actually a blame game going on in Formula One. And let's just enlist it. So this, you know, you want to quote your favorite driver and what he said about the FIA Soumil, because that's where it started, right? Because Carlos Sainz said, who in the FIA saw this formula for F1 in 20, in 2022? And said, yeah, that's good, let's go racing. And then the FIA said, well, actually, technically, we are the FIA Formula One World Championship. We give the name and the rights for it. But we don't control the governance. We wanted a car that's lighter. We wanted batteries that either last longer or don't have as much impact. We wanted the internal combustion engine to power you more. We wanted to reduce harvesting, reduce super clipping, let you have full power, reduce downforce, reduce tire pressures as well. When you actually sit to make a list, which you and I did, they said, we wanted the perfect formula for Formula One. But guess what? We couldn't get it because the teams told us you can't. They didn't want, we didn't have the super majority. So is the governance structure to be fixed before we have to actually fix Formula One? There's so many questions.

Soumil Arora (2:04)

If you start to take that governance power away from the teams, will it even be Formula One? Because that's the essence of it all. The teams came together to form the Formula One Constructors Association, which was owned by, of course, rather managed by Bernie Eccleston, which eventually resulted in Formula One management, which is what we see right now. It's the teams that came together to form this. And essentially, they are part of the whole equation. Anyway you see it, the Concord agreement has also been signed. So at least for the next, what is it, nine odd years now, since I think it was signed last year, the next nine odd years, it's not changing. So where do we go from here? We're stuck with a set of regulations that will now require at least some manufacturers to accept it was wrong and then agree to a solution, which may well actually go against their strategic interests. And I'm not just talking about mood and whim here. Kunal, they've made multi-million dollar investments into technical facilities and staff that they have designed according to this set of regulations. So we can't really move away from it for too long now.

Kunal Shah (3:06)

What you said is very crucial because of manufacturers. So we spoke of the blame game. There's drivers blaming FIA, FIA blaming manufacturers, saying this is what the boardrooms want, this is what the future of mobility is. But at no point are the team bosses, are the manufacturers, are the representatives of the team saying that this is a wrong formula for Formula One. The FIA wants to go big on changes to deliver us big racing. But the teams think this is fine. The drivers need to get smarter, make changes, learn, adapt, which is also true because Formula One, driving, your driving needs to adapt to the formula of Formula One, which is also what we've learned.

For the first time, the driving doesn't need you to be flat out. That's the problem-ish and algorithms are coming into play. And what you said about teams making rules and the concord agreement and so on. One of the most unique distinctions Formula One as a sport has with pretty much every other sport in the world is this is a sport where the participants actually are part of the rulemaking process because they say if you make a rule, we are the ones who are investing those millions and billions towards helping the sport go racing. So we need to have a say in on the rules.