There are two ways of looking at a racing driver’s job.
Primarily, it is to get whatever car they have been given around a lap as fast as possible. In that sense, nothing has changed.
But on a more philosophical level, F1 is meant to be the ultimate challenge – the driver taking their machine and themselves to the limit of what is possible. In that sense, it very much has changed.
There is almost unanimous agreement that the challenge of a flat-out qualifying lap has diminished as a consequence of the demand for energy management. To the extent there is no longer such a thing as a flat-out lap.
Some of the sport’s most challenging corners have been made less demanding because they are now what Fernando Alonso has referred to as “charging zones”.
On some circuits, drivers are having to ‘lift and coast’ – lifting off the accelerator before corners so the electric motor can run against the engine – on qualifying laps to produce the best all-round performance.
Suzuka, which hosted the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend and is regarded as possibly the most challenging circuit on the calendar, was a test case for the new rules. And in the eyes of the drivers, the rules failed it.
The Esses – perhaps the most technically demanding piece of racetrack on the planet – was designated a “zero kilowatt zone”, where teams could deploy no electrical energy.
That meant the engines operated at more or less half power through there. The speed changes in between corners were not very much different from before, and the corners were still grip limited, but it changed the nature of the challenge.
Worse were the two Degner corners.
As McLaren team principal Andrea Stella put it: “Degner One has always been one that the drivers will mention in a season. Like, what are the most challenging corners? That’s one of those.
“Now, you think about the battery as you go through the corner, you don’t think about gaining half a tenth just by committing to it. It is now a corner in which you almost lift and roll through, and then you have to avoid going on power between Degner One and Two, because that way of using your battery would not be efficient.”
The same applied to the entry to Spoon Curve, and through Turns One and Two.
Norris said a lap of Suzuka “still feels special” but admitted it “hurts the soul” to lose, as the cars were, about 37mph from the high-speed 130R kink until braking for the chicane because the car had run out of electrical power.
Leclerc, meanwhile, swore over the radio to his team after Saturday’s session, saying: “I honestly can’t stand these new rules in qualifying. I go faster in corners, I go on throttle earlier… I’m losing everything in the straight!”
Essentially, drivers are having to do a series of actions in qualifying that McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has described as “counter-intuitive”.
Leclerc said: “Consistency is paying off more than being brave and going to take something that you’ve never tried before, which is a shame and which makes qualifying a little bit less challenging. This is something we need to work on.
“It’s a known issue. It’s not that the FIA or the teams are just accepting the situation as it is. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes and I hope that we can find a solution as soon as possible.”
