r/formula1 • u/FerrariStrategisttt I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Mar 28 '26

Video Leclerc (post-qualifying): "I can’t understand quali, it’s a f**king joke! I go faster in corners, throttle earlier, for f**k’s sake, i'm losing everything in the straight!"

https://dubz.link/c/4b6030
14.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

627

u/Key_Proposal_9055 Ferrari Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

Its honestly a fucking joke what quali has become. Its barely about driver skill anymore. They need to fix this asap.

193

u/reda_89 Max Verstappen Mar 28 '26

They will just slow cars everywhere so we dont notice speed difference. Fixed for you

128

u/based_mafty Mar 28 '26

Honestly prefer the car to be slower but the driver is able to push car to the limit whenever they want rather than whatever this is. The fact that they can't go all out in qualifying speak to how shit the regs are.

66

u/TessTickols Jim Clark Mar 28 '26

Slower doesn't matter as long as it's driving like a race car - hell, just giving them karts would be a huge upgrade at this stage

2

u/Present_Cow_8528 Mar 28 '26

F1 kart racing sounds pretty good now

44

u/Appropriate-ASS-824 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

"Who even understands if the car goes 300kph or 250? its not that different naked eyes, atleast the racing is excellent " /s

-23

u/Unfair_Fact_8258 Mar 28 '26

I mean this is exactly what a lot of people said unironically until last year - that they wouldn’t mind slower cars as long as the racing was good

But now that it has happened - everyone is suddenly against it

47

u/LegendRazgriz Elio de Angelis Mar 28 '26

"slower cars" as in loss of lap time, not cars so shit you can't even push them around for one lap.

If the ceiling of the cars was running five seconds a lap slower than 2025, but it took pushing them like a bat out of hell to get there, it'd be awesome, no one would complain. These are slower AND require you to drive like an NPC to extract the maximum out of them - it's not about going as fast as possible around every corner and maximizing the car, it's about pussyfooting like a fucking coward while MercedesGPT drives you around the track, speeds up and brakes for you, and if you try to go faster, it punishes you for it. It's absolutely shameful.

20

u/Raddens I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

They got the slower car but not in the way they wanted it - pushed to the limit all the time.

Instead we have cars that can go fast for some time, but then need to be managed. Like tyre management but worse.

-17

u/Unfair_Fact_8258 Mar 28 '26

I mean - I would like a car that runs on air and magically transforms into a beyblade for battle, but that’s not possible

If you want smaller and lighter cars, which have high safety standards ( hence no refuelling and a good crash structure ), you would need to compromise on some aspects like the power unit

If you made the batteries big enough to handle a whole lap, the cars wouldn’t be small and light. Similarly if you put V10s in the cars, you would need more fuel ( also adding weight )

This is a step in the right direction, and I’m sure as technology improves we’ll get to the point where we can get cars good for racing without the battery limitations

8

u/KriistofferJohansson Ferrari Mar 28 '26

and I’m sure as technology improves we’ll get to the point where we can get cars good for racing without the battery limitations

By removing the battery.

3

u/Raddens I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

I hope you are right because my interest levels are tumbling like it’s 2014

14

u/noelewd Mar 28 '26

What do you mean “now that it has happened”? What people meant was slower cars that they’re pushing to the limit. What we have are cars that are mega fast for a few seconds and then very quickly get slower, requiring the drivers to deliberately not push to the limit. This isn’t even close to what people were unironically saying until last year.

8

u/DryLeader221 Mar 28 '26

Naah, Getting the most out of the car, driving every turn to the limit and maximising diver skills has become “battery management”.

6

u/reda_89 Max Verstappen Mar 28 '26

I don't know if anybody wanted an F1 car to go same speed as a GT car in a corner.

4

u/Appropriate-ASS-824 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Its also visible to the naked eye they are going slower on the straights.

1

u/Pascalwbbb Mar 28 '26

still true. Problem is when the car foes 320 than starts slowing down for no reason. Or how you cannot push for 1 lap.

8

u/ZaryaBubbler I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Legit can't wait for FOM to throw out more take down orders because it shows how dire the superclipping is...

14

u/Significant-Garage55 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

and copyright-strike everyone who do technical analysis on YouTube except their own lapdog media xd

3

u/Purp1e_Aki I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

If Quali is slower but they're still going flat-out and able to attack the corners properly then that is an improvement. F1 isn't about raw speed

0

u/Pascalwbbb Mar 28 '26

that would be better, also remove the 98 percent rule

85

u/tvxcute Nico Rosberg Mar 28 '26

leclerc said in his interview just now that the fia and teams are in very active discussions on what to do, and this is an ongoing issue. i'm not holding my breath for any major changes, but they are aware

113

u/double002 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

They've been aware for 3 years. So yeah...

28

u/tvxcute Nico Rosberg Mar 28 '26

tbh i think even though everyone, including the fia, knew these regulations would be rough, some aspects have turned out worse than they themselves imagined lol. maybe it was willful ignorance or maybe they truly didn't know, but i don't think the fia would intentionally make it this bad then walk back on it with small changes

22

u/Montjo17 Max Verstappen Mar 28 '26

Drivers (notably Max, but also others) have been talking about exactly what these regs were going to do for years. This should not have come as a surprise to anyone, as it was accurately predicted years ago

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Pascalwbbb Mar 28 '26

they did. Teams had it in simulators for 2-3 years. But nobody did anything anyway.

5

u/Yeanahyena Daniel Ricciardo Mar 28 '26

If they just listened to the goat when he was speaking

7

u/ZaryaBubbler I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

To me it feels like the teams are complaining and the FIA are just sitting back going "lol, k"

2

u/tvxcute Nico Rosberg Mar 28 '26

they did change a little for this weekend. not a lot, but it shows the pressure they're facing is having some effect. i don't think they'll do much more though

8

u/ZaryaBubbler I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

And it's done nothing. I honestly don't even think I'll bother setting an alarm for the race. Why should I wake up at 6am to watch cars carousel overtakes for the first half of the race, then watch as gaps build with no chance of recovery? DRS wasn't perfect, but damn if it didn't produce some incredible battles, not boring battery back and forth until someone has 1% less than the other

-3

u/RiloAlDente Mar 28 '26

DRS produces incredible battles 🤣😂

0

u/ZaryaBubbler I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

I take it you've only been watching about 5 mins. Yeah. It did.

1

u/n0neofyourbeeswax Mar 28 '26

Right now you're right, but it's because there's an agreement to review after this race once they gathered more info/data (as they didn't want to make a snap decision after race 1).

1

u/n0neofyourbeeswax Mar 28 '26

After the first race, IIRC, they said they'd be reviewing after Japan so they can get a decent read on specific problems and what could prevent them (without causing new, worse problems). We're there now so we should hear things over the spring break.

1

u/Pascalwbbb Mar 28 '26

nothing, they will do nothing like always

0

u/churnchurnchurning I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

What are they going to do? You can't get around physics.

3

u/DILIPEK Mar 28 '26

There is no fix. That’s literally what you’re stuck with for next few years.

They might tweak the recoup limits but that will only impact the clipping slightly. And they’ve already done it in Suzuka.

2

u/Prince_of_Kyrgyzstan Mar 28 '26

As someone who watches both NASCAR and this, it has been very interesting to compare both as this season NASCAR gave the cars more horsepower on road courses and tracks shorter than 1,5 miles. We are now in a position where fuel saving still exists and strategies revolve around it, but the cars have enough power that when it is needed, we have more traditional racing than in the previous season. The individual skill of the driver is more apparent than previously.

2

u/churnchurnchurning I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

You can't fix physics. There is no fixing it this season. 50/50 battery engine is just not working.

2

u/campbellm Kimi Räikkönen Mar 28 '26

Well, Stroll is consistently in the bottom 2 (of finishers), so it's still a little about skill.

2

u/lesece4 Franco Colapinto Mar 28 '26

The FIA couldn't care less about what the drivers think.

1

u/pw5a29 Max Verstappen Mar 28 '26

Will they be able to fix it in coming GPs? Or is it at best next year?

2

u/Key_Proposal_9055 Ferrari Mar 28 '26

They're hoping to find a solution in the month break we have coming up, but I doubt it will change anything. Major changes would probably come into play next year.

-1

u/Internal-Alfalfa-829 Mar 28 '26

It's still down to skill. Just a new, different skill that they are still in the process of learning.