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Former Red Bull man Helmut Marko has continued with his criticism of the 2026 F1 regulations, comparing the sport’s new generation of rules to ‘playing football with a square ball’.
After the season-opener in Melbourne, Marko complained that F1’s new ruleset hasn’t ‘improved’ the sport in any way. His biggest gripe was the artificial overtaking, in which he stated that he ‘wouldn’t even call it that’.
Fast forward to the upcoming Miami Grand Prix, and F1 have acted upon the feedback they have received over the first three rounds. A swathe of changes have been made to the technical regulations in order to alleviate any concerns.
Share one thing you love about the 2026 F1 regulations!
One of the amendments is that the maximum power for F1’s latest buzzword, super clipping, has been increased from 250kW to 350kW, which is expected to see speed drops due to energy harvesting look and feel more natural.
This, in turn, should reduce the number of artificial overtakes. Still, Marko isn’t convinced that the change is significant enough to improve the sport’s wheel-to-wheel racing.
Helmut Marko says the latest rule changes are only ‘20%’ of what F1 really needs
In a recent interview with the Austrian newspaper Krone, Marko shared his thoughts on the changes made during the five-week break between the Japanese Grand Prix and Miami.
“In principle, the regulations need to be given a chance, but I fear the latest changes aren’t significant enough,” Marko said, in response to a question over whether the amendments will increase the amount of racing versus energy management.
Should F1 make small tweaks to the rules, rather than major changes?
He added, “The goal is clear: increase the power output of the combustion engine and reduce electrical energy consumption.
“And from what I hear, they’ve only achieved 20% of what they ultimately want. Right now, it’s like playing football with a square ball.”
Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has a differing opinion from Marko regarding F1’s intervention.
The Austrian noted that the sport’s top brass shouldn’t make too significant a change just yet, telling journalists, via the BBC, that they must “act with a scalpel and not with a baseball bat.”
- READ MORE: Max Verstappen’s ‘prayers’ are still unanswered after 12 changes to the Formula 1 regulations
Kimi Antonelli and George Russell ‘remain the big favourites’ in title race for Helmut Marko
Another question that was posed to the former Red Bull special advisor was in reference to how the title race will be affected by the latest technical amendments.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli are naturally being considered as the favourites for the drivers’ title this year, given Mercedes’ hot start to the 2026 campaign.
Asked if the changes mean that the world championship can start afresh again, Marko replied, “I don’t think so.
“Mercedes are far too settled; they have a great chassis, a powerful engine and are far from having shown everything they’ve got – they certainly still have an ace up their sleeve. For me, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell remain the big favourites.”
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