Technical Analysis – Regulation 2026: Chronicle of a Foretold and Avoidable Crisis

Formula 1 was born in 1950 from the idea of ​​providing a (this time peaceful) arena for competition between aircraft engine manufacturers from World War II and the burgeoning automotive industry, by repurposing disused military airfields into racetracks. It enjoyed its golden age during a time when the focus was on encouraging the growth of the automobile and the oil industry. Those days are over, and F1 is struggling to reinvent itself in a context that challenges everything.

I think Niki Lauda was right, but it's somewhat in the nature of any pioneering activity to lose its soul and magic when it evolves from a period of great innovation to greater routine, more technology, and more media coverage. I've experienced this as an F1 fan like you, but also in the space industry. Whatever we do, we'll never recapture the magic of the sport's early decades.

Yes, indeed, I completely agree with all your comments. F1 has sold its soul; it is urgent to return to certain fundamentals to restore meaning and also a minimum of ethics to this discipline, which has lost quite a few of its sporting and political values ​​in recent years and decades.

A Formula 1 fan since 1969, and as Vincent so rightly points out, it would never have occurred to me to call the pinnacle of motorsport "Yoyo Racing" or Mario Kart! A certain Niki Lauda stated a few years before his death that he didn't think F1 would reach its 100th anniversary, and I fear he was right, but I'm just an old fart and an old fan, which Liberty Media doesn't care about!

As Vincent says, F1 has been collapsing from a sporting perspective ever since that old man cowardly (for money) sold it to the Americans! For those people (Americans), the only thing that interests them is money and its "show," look at Trump's current actions, troublemakers with absolutely no concern for people... Their only worry at the moment is how to recoup the money lost by canceling the two GPs in Arab countries... ugh! They don't give a damn about the sport performed by the drivers!

Finally, I've been following F1 for 50 years, and despite the technological revolutions, it has never been called "Mario Kart" by spectators or drivers. That alone seriously damages a discipline that aspires to be the pinnacle of motorsport and makes a fool of itself.

For several years now, F1 has been playing with fire with dangerous things, like movable wings that deprive cars of downforce at full speed, and now these sudden braking maneuvers, all in the name of an artificial "spectacle" that's becoming ridiculous. The two combined are practically Russian roulette with the lives of drivers and spectators. Why is no one heeding these "blaring alarm bells"? Because F1 has become a lucrative business under Liberty Media's reign, for whom anything other than profit is negligible. But when you ignore the warnings, problems inevitably arise: the potential defection of loyal fans to a volatile target audience of ignorant people who will swallow anything, and the risk of a major catastrophe that would damage the image of the sport, some circuits, and the manufacturers involved to such an extent that the negative impact would far outweigh any expected benefits.

F1… needs to return, in part, to its motorsport roots! A simple engine! V8 or V10, and above all, far fewer technologies that serve no purpose in sports 🧐. And this needs to happen as soon as possible, and the GPDA really needs to react, like in Niki's time! Otherwise, the fans, TV, and sponsors will end up abandoning… F1. alainkf1@pt.lu 😎🧐

I disagree with the "EXCITING" technical revolutions mentioned in your introduction. Perhaps for the Formula 1 gurus, but not for the motorsport enthusiast. The very essence of racing is compromised.