Three races into Formula One’s 2026 season, the new regulations have ignited a firestorm of debate. Driver dissatisfaction and a terrifying high-speed crash at Suzuka have thrust the sport into a critical review phase. At the center of it all stands Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater director, who insists the patient isn’t in intensive care—but needs a few apples, not open-heart surgery.
“It’s not like we’re discussing a complete rewrite,” Tombazis says. “We believe the patient is not in intensive care; the patient needs to just eat a couple of apples per day, not to have an open-heart surgery. There are topics from both the drivability and the safety point of view that we need to address.”
The 57-year-old engineer, with F1 experience dating back to 1992 at teams like Ferrari and McLaren, acknowledges the noise. “I don’t like to be going around saying: ‘Everything is fine, we don’t need to do anything,’ because clearly things do need to be done. Equally, I don’t like to say on the other extreme: ‘It’s all a mess.’ We have fans happy with the show, we’ve got an accident that was caused by specific aspects we need to solve and we’ve got some drivers who feel that some things can be improved.”
Driver reactions have split the grid. George Russell at Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari have generally accepted the formula, which ramps up electrical energy use, requiring precise management over each lap. But others are scathing. Lando Norris has expressed distaste, while world champion Max Verstappen has repeatedly stated he’s so disenchanted he’s considering leaving the sport.
“I don’t know if there’s ever much of a case when you are the headmaster or the referee when you get a pat on the back all the time,” Tombazis notes. “They usually get criticised, and we are big enough to know that.”
The urgency escalated with Oliver Bearman’s 190mph crash at Suzuka. The incident, caused by drastic closing speed differences between cars, sent shockwaves through the paddock. “Every accident at high speed is always a little bit of a shock,” Tombazis admits. “To say it was expected would be wrong but the closing speeds had been identified as a risk.”
He emphasizes caution, however. “There have been talks about it but there was not easily the ability to act on it before we had a bit of time to analyse a few of the parameters. When we’ve introduced changes in a much more hurried way, the risk is that we make things worse or we cause all sorts of other issues, so that’s why we need to have a bit of time to analyse. Clearly safety is the number one priority.”
Now, the FIA is moving fast. A series of meetings this month will tackle the issues head-on. A preliminary session this Thursday will assess technical and sporting data from the first three rounds. Another follows next Thursday, with drivers set to join the discussion. Then, on April 20, senior representatives—team principals, CEOs, power-unit manufacturers, and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali—will convene to decide on regulation changes, subject to ratification by the world motorsport council.
The goal is to implement adjustments by the Miami Grand Prix on May 3. Tombazis clarifies that changes won’t involve engine construction but will focus on energy recovery and deployment parameters. “These rules are what we collectively refer to as energy management rules that won’t require changes to hardware but may require some settings to change and some software,” he explains. “Changes that are fundamentally possible to introduce very soon and go to the core of addressing closing speeds or driver satisfaction.”
He doesn’t rule out further tweaks. “We may decide that we want to have a phase one and a phase two and maybe give phase two a bit more time for some tweaks to be done by the manufacturers.”
With up to 200 engineers per team pushing performance limits, Tombazis likens the learning curve to mastering an instrument. “You can learn theoretically how to play the violin but until you play the violin you don’t necessarily understand what it involves,” he observes.
The complexity of hybrid engines—affecting driver experience and fan perception—adds to the challenge. F1 insists fan reception has been positive, but balancing safety with speed and satisfaction is a tightrope walk.
“Everyone is extremely passionate about this sport – drivers, fans – and when things are not perfect, they will be quite passionate about it. We’re not expecting people to sugarcoat their comments,” Tombazis says. “But I’m now hoping for broad consensus, that teams will be also supportive and we won’t be in a position where we have to argue too much.”
As the clock ticks toward Miami, the FIA aims to marry safety commitments with necessary tweaks. The outcome may not please everyone, but there’s optimism for a successful adjustment—at least until the 2027 debates begin.
