Fans accuse F1 of ‘trying to deceive the audience’ with ‘frozen’ speedometer at Chinese Grand Prix

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Fans think the F1 world feed broadcast is deliberately disguising the impact of ‘superclipping’ at the Chinese Grand Prix.

F1 fans were upset during Australian GP qualifying last week when they saw drivers coasting into the high-speed turn nine/10 chicane after running out of electrical energy. But they were assured that the Shanghai layout would be more favourable for energy recovery.

But the 1.2km back straight still appears too long for the 2026 cars in their current form. Onboard footage during Sprint qualifying showed Kimi Antonelli in the dominant Mercedes depleting all of his battery before he reached the braking zone.

Fans think that F1 broadcast is trying to hide lift and coast at Chinese Grand Prix

Antonelli hit 334 km/h on the straight during his second SQ3 lap, then the speed started to drop as the superclipping kicked in. The telemetry graphic showed a reduction to 325 km/h but no further, even though the car still appeared to be decelerating.

After around five seconds at 325 km/h, or so viewers are led to believe, the speed instantly drops to 250km/h the moment Antonelli applies the brakes. The abrupt change to the measurement, which normally updates continuously, invited suspicion from fans.

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One fan commented on YouTube: “Are you serious F1? Freezing the KM/H before clipping starts? Do you actually think we won’t notice the car jumping down from 325 to 250? Are you actively trying to deceive the audience?”

Another added, ‘You guys think we don’t see these things?’, while a fellow viewer asked, ‘F1, what have you become?’ as he lamented the ‘abysmal’ reduction in speed. Other comments included ‘ridiculous behaviour’ and ‘the disrespect to fans is crazy’.

“A 100km/h brake in one millisecond!” quipped one final fan. “That’s amazing!”

F1 was already accused of censorship after the Australian GP

After the season opener in Australia, F1 proudly shared the overtaking stats on X. There were 120 on-track passes this year, compared to 40 in the final year of the ground-effect era.

However, this statistic is divisive. While some fans felt the race, which started with a back-and-forth battle for the lead between George Russell and Charles Leclerc, was thoroughly entertaining, others saw the passing as artificial.

Indeed, drivers like Max Verstappen even compared F1 to Mario Kart, with the boost and overtake buttons delivering the same advantage as the power-ups in the popular video game.

A community note attached to the post claims that ‘F1 is actively censoring the fans’ opinions about the new regulations, as seen in the hidden replies’. It’s no surprise that they are trying to present the new cars in a favourable light to drum up interest, but perhaps they are going too far and alienating some of their existing viewers in the process.