'Horrible to think about': F1 to review new regulations following driver criticism

All parties involved in F1 will review the 2026 regulations after round two of the season as the performance of the of hybrid-powered cars raised questions on the weekend.

F1 has been presenting Sunday's race as a triumph, pointing out there were 120 overtakes against 45 in last year's Australian Grand Prix and a thrilling battle for the lead between Mercedes' George Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc over multiple laps.

Russell and teammate Kimi Antonelli, who called the action "incredible," are the new cars' biggest cheerleaders after finishing first and second, but Lewis Hamilton is upbeat too after suggesting in preseason the rules might be too complex for fans to follow.

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However, 2025 champion Lando Norris was also critical, stating the the new cars create a dangerous situation on track.

"We've come from the best cars ever made in Formula 1, and the nicest to drive, to probably the worst," the defending champion said ahead of the race. After the race, he was critical of overtaking he branded "artificial," too.

Norris warned after the Australian GP he expects a big crash due to the big differences in speed between two cars if one is deploying extra electrical power and the other isn't.

Watching a replay, Russell and Leclerc winced at a notable near-miss at the start when Franco Colapinto narrowly avoided crashing into the back of Liam Lawson's car. The start procedure has already been tweaked once to avoid exactly that sort of incident.

"You can have a 30/40/50km/h speed [difference]," he added.

"When someone hits someone at that speed, you're going to fly, you're going to go over the fence and you're going to do a lot of damage to yourself and maybe to others.

"That's a pretty horrible thing to think about."

Russell hit back at Norris' criticism.

"If he was winning, I don't think he'd be saying the same," Russell said.

Some drivers compared the new era to video game racing or regretted the way overtaking typically happened in straight-line racing rather than old-school dives into a corner.

A social media jibe from the world of IndyCar went viral Saturday as the Chip Ganassi Racing team listed 2026 F1 terms like "battery management" and "downshifting on straights" on X before adding: "Yeah, we don't do that here. We race."

There are concerns of a different sort at Aston Martin, where team boss Adrian Newey warned their uncompetitive and unreliable car vibrated so much that drivers risked "permanent nerve damage."

The FIA's Nikolas Tombazis said more data was needed to understand how the new regulations had impacted the sport.

"The teams' unanimous position was that we should stick to the current arrangements for the first few races and to review the matter when we have a bit more data," he said.

"Our intention is after China to be reviewing the energy management situation.

"We have a few aces up our sleeves on that, which we didn't want to introduce ahead of the first race as a knee-jerk reaction, and which we will review with the teams."

Williams team boss James Vowles urged patience.

"I think the worst thing we can do is change it and make it worse," he said.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff: "I didn't hear any of the drivers speaking particularly good of the last cars and saying it was the best car," he said.

"So we tend to be very nostalgic in looking at past events.

"But clearly, we are all stakeholders of the sport. We need to have a great spectacle, the best cars in the world and the best drivers, and being exciting for the fans.

"That's why we just need to look at the product."