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Mercedes may not have wanted to agree to the new rule change, given the overwhelming advantage over other teams this season.
Kimi Antonelli will be thrilled with the new rule concerning starting procedures, given how much he has struggled with starts this season.
But as a whole, Mercedes may not be happy about the new rule changes, given that their work on the 2026 car gave them a sizeable advantage over all other teams.
Should F1 make small tweaks to the rules, rather than major changes?
Furthermore, given Ferrari’s attempts to equal Mercedes during this hiatus, there has to be some concern within the team that they are being caught up to.
Despite this, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff signed off on the rule change. And one former McLaren engineer believes it was a compromise on their end to ensure the success of Formula 1.
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Former McLaren engineer says Mercedes ‘realised’ new rule change was necessary despite their advantage
Speaking to Peter Windsor, former McLaren engineer Mark Slade spoke about how Mercedes will be reacting to the new rule change.
He believes, despite them having to compromise some of their advantage this season, Mercedes have agreed to the change to ensure Formula 1 is still appealing as an entertainment product.
“It’s a step in the right direction, inasmuch as they’ve realised that the balance between electrical and ice power is not correct and the drivers are having to do too much recovery around the laps, even in qualifying. So effectively, they have reduced that level of recovery, and they’ve boosted super clipping.
“So when the engine is actually driving the generator, that has actually increased the amount of recovery it can do. So that makes lift and coast less attractive, and that makes the amount of time spent doing super clipping less because you can recover more in a shorter space of time.
“I think that’s a good thing, but whether it fixes the problems or it’s just a little scrap, we’ll have to wait and see. I imagine that teams were given a number of proposals or were asked to provide proposals and do a load of simulations based on those.
“And to come up with something that was a decent step forward but maintaining Mercedes’ advantage to some extent. Because, obviously, they’ve done a better job than everyone else, and they stand to lose the most if big changes were made. I guess there’s some sort of compromise that has been agreed.
“But at the same time, I suppose Mercedes realised it’s got to be a good show. Otherwise, winning something that no one watches isn’t going to be interesting.”
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Mercedes could have suffered worse fate with stricter rule change
Speaking further, Slade noted that Mercedes would have struggled or felt hard done by had their been greater limitations on power use and deployment in the new rule change.
“I just think a bigger power reduction, a bigger energy reduction (would have hurt Mercedes more). Reducing the amount of energy you’re allowed to recover in a lap, therefore reducing the deployment.
“It just means that Mercedes have a more efficient system. They’re better at recovering than other people. It would have reduced that advantage.
“They’re all struggling. When you have got an advantage in something that where people are struggling to get to the limits, then you have quite a big advantage.”
Mercedes will get a true sense of how much the new rule change will impact them next weekend, when the F1 season resumes with the Miami Grand Prix.
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