Oscar Piastri has been particularly critical of the new F1 regulations. The McLaren driver is far from enthusiastic about the system that determines where the electric energy is used on a circuit. According to Piastri, this means that drivers no longer fully control how they utilize the car’s performance. During the Belgian GP, several teams struggled to optimally set up the new power units, he explained.
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The current power units deploy their power on specific parts of the circuit without the driver having any influence. A self-learning system determines where the available electric energy can be used most efficiently to optimize lap time. However, this means that drivers have to give up control at certain moments, which caused considerable frustration for Piastri among others.
The Australian did not hide his annoyance after the Belgian GP. “It’s rubbish. I can’t say it any other way,” he responded visibly frustrated. “I was certainly not the only one complaining. I know that George (Russell, ed.) had a lot of problems with it this weekend and maybe also in the past few races. And when I talk to others, I hear similar stories. If the starting grid is basically already determined before qualifying by computers that behave well or badly, then that’s a pretty lousy way of racing.”
‘It’s baked into these engines’
Piastri explained that it is particularly frustrating for a driver when performance depends more on software than on their own steering. “I might be exaggerating a bit, but imagine after qualifying you look at all the corners and think: ‘I’m driving exactly the same lines as my teammate, but in the end, I’m still two tenths short.’ That’s not a nice feeling.”
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Although the FIA will implement changes in the coming years to further adjust the balance between the combustion engine and the electric drive, Piastri does not expect all problems to disappear. “The changes in fuel flow and the lower use of the battery do not solve this specific problem. It has to do with the calibration of the engine and the way the system keeps adapting itself,” he explained. “It’s basically baked into these engines. Of course, it gets better as all manufacturers learn to better understand the power units. Moreover, it’s not just a problem for us or Mercedes; all engine suppliers deal with it, and that causes frustration everywhere.”
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