Formula 1 drivers say there is too much to lose from pushing their cars flat-out in qualifying due to a quirk of the new power unit regulations.
While drivers are already forced to slow significantly on some straights to conserve energy, another aspect of F1’s complex new rules is causing severe performance restrictions.
Charles Leclerc encountered the problem during qualifying for the sprint race in Shanghai last week. A slight throttle lift due to a small correction at turn nine triggered a change in his energy deployment which cost him power on the straight leading out of turn 13.
“With that very small lift, which was I think out of turn nine, [it] kind of changes all the deployment and then I lost half a second on one straight,” Leclerc explained.
He expects the FIA to make changes to prevent drivers being punished so severely for minor corrections while trying to take corners as quickly as possible.
“These are the kinds of changes that I think we’re all little by little pinpointing to the FIA and I’m sure that there will be some changes in the future to try and address those issues because it’s a little bit silly to lose half a second just because of a very small lift at some point,” he said.
“I was very frustrated, very, very, very frustrated. The lift was, I think, two or three percent of throttle, which is kind of nothing. It’s in the vibration of the foot.
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“So it’s not something that I expected at all, but it’s something that I had experienced also before in testing, so I knew it was a possibility. These kinds of things can happen, but when it happens it’s very frustrating, especially when it’s in Q3.”
Oliver Bearman, who had a similar experience to Leclerc, said drivers would be better off not pushing flat-out in qualifying.
“In China we went through the whole of qualifying and on my final lap I did all of my best corners, but I actually went slower by like two tenths because sometimes actually going faster in the corners and picking up throttle earlier, it confuses the car and you end up losing outright lap time, which is really strange.
“Even sometimes there are some corners, not many, but one or two corners per track where if you go on throttle and then lift and return to throttle, it just messes up everything. It can be three percent of throttle and that can finish your lap, basically.
“It happened to me in China and I lost two tenths down the back straight and I was so confused. Then you look back and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you had five percent less battery to start the straight,’ and that’s really the difference that it can make.”
Bearman said it was hard to get used to the possibility of losing lap time by taking a corner more quickly. “The way that we’ve always driven, you push more and more throughout qualifying and you get to that final run, you try to get everything out of it, and it ends up being slower.
“Actually you’re better off just driving at 99 percent and doing consistent laps, which is a bit against our nature. It’s something we’re having to adjust to.”
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2026 Japanese Grand Prix
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