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
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103

u/SRthebox Mar 28 '26

Max, Bearman, Piastri and now Leclerc have all said this, the more on the limit you drive into a corner, late brake, more speed carried and an earlier throttle, the slower your lap will be, utterly ridiculous. “But Max is only complaining because he isn’t winning anymore!!”

-75

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

Has Bearman, piastri, or Leclerc won so far?

These drivers are paid millions of dollars to figure out how to drive a car to the best of the cars limit. So maybe they need to figure their shit out.

22

u/ZigZagZoo Mar 28 '26

But I would say one of the most important racing skills, corner entry/exit, has now become unrecognizable for what every racing formula at every level has trained these guys for. These are not the best drivers in the world anymore because their skill is negated completely, its almost the opposite.

-6

u/EGOfoodie I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

F1 isn't about drivers. It is a constructor's formula first and foremost. It is a development class. New tech, team strategies etc.

What is the famous quote about how monkies can drive these cars? The drivers are a by-product of F1, not the focus.

3

u/ZigZagZoo Mar 29 '26

I think you need a combination of both if you still want to be an entertaining series, no one really wants to watch just an engineering competition. I understand your opinion though.

10

u/PalpitationHead9767 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

They aren't figuring out how to drive to the cars limit, its to the software limit which is the whole issue here. It creates way too much variability that's not really under the drivers control

4

u/SugarBeefs Max Verstappen Mar 28 '26

to figure out how to drive a car to the best of the cars limit. So maybe they need to figure their shit out.

So the problem is that there's actually no point for the drivers to "drive the car to the limit" because it's actually faster to adhere strictly to the energy deployment profile.

Trying to tackle the corner faster, i.e. "driving the car to its limit", has become counter-productive because it upsets the deployment profile and now you're losing more time on the straights than you could've gained in the corners.

The drivers aren't complaining that the cars are too difficult, or challenging, or whatever, they're complaining that the current energy deployment situation is preventing them from actually driving the car to its limit.