Fernando Alonso jokes ‘chef could drive’ in assessment of F1 2026 regs

Fernando Alonso joked Aston Martin’s team chef could drive the 2026 car, such was the pace deficit from this year to last year.

Plenty of drivers have been pretty pessimistic about the qualities of the 2026 regulations, in particular how much you have to focus on battery management, and Alonso detailed just how they are different.

Fernando Alonso jokes ‘chef could drive’ F1 2026 car

Max Verstappen led the charge for criticising the new regs but Alonso was more detailed in his assessment, suggesting that top speeds in high-speed corners had decreased so much that a driver’s skill could be lower.

“We need to wait a couple of races to see how these regs work when we are all together and how racing becomes definitely on the pure driving, I said last week at the car launch that, you know for me, the late ’90s and the early 2000s will be unbeatable in terms of driving adrenaline and pure skills from a driver point of view because you wanted to drive fast in the corners and find the limits of the car.

“Here in Bahrain has been historically, 10/12, a very challenging corner, so you used to choose your downforce level to go 10/12 just flat. So you remove downforce until you are in 10/12 just flat with new tyres, and then in the race. So it was a driver skill, you know, a decisive factor to go fast in a lap time.

“Now in 10/12 we are like 50kph lower because we don’t want to waste energy there, and we want to have it all on the straights. So you do 10/12, instead of 260, at 200. The chef can drive the car in 10/12 at that speed, but you don’t want to waste energy, because you want to have it on the straight.

“So I understand Max’s comments, because from a driver you would like to make the difference in the corner, driving those five kilometres faster, but now you are dictated by how much energy your engine will have on the next straight.”

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Alonso did though say that balance has always been a part of Formula 1 and while it is the PU now, previously it was downforce.

“But at the same time, this is Formula 1, and it has always been like that,” Alonso, who will reach his 450th F1 race this year, said. “Now it is the energy. Last year or two years ago, when he [Verstappen] won all the races, it was the downforce.

“He could go in the corners at 280 and we could go in the corners at 250 because we didn’t have the downforce. So, you know, at the end of the day this is Formula 1. We close the visor, we go and this is the same motor racing.

“Sometimes we go with the rental car here in Bahrain, incredible circuit by the way, and you have a lot of fun with a rental car. So, you know, we still love motor racing. We still love competing. And for the regs, I understand that it’s less input by the driving skills, but I think after three or four races maybe we will have a better idea.”

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