F1 2026 cars should be “easy” on drivers, but time – James Walls

Williams The team’s principal James Walls says that the F1 teams still have work to work about drivers, which increase mental charge with all new 2026 cars, but do initial panic on seismic changes.

The next year is changing both F1 chassis and power unit, which is seen as one of the biggest regulation changes in history, giving great emphasis on electrical energy, close to 50–50 partitions with internal combustion engine.

That step means that energy management in a lap will be a very large factor. The driver-in-loop simulator has so far shown that the 2026 models are much different to drive not only compared to the current generation, but also have much mental work on drivers.

Ferrari Charles Lakeler Did a driver voicing his displeasure as to how the new rules forced them to drive on the team’s simulator, although most drivers have sampled new machinery in the virtual world, which have been on early models, which are not completely representatives what would actually be the hit on the track at the end of January.

Williams driver Alex albon After trialing, he was more measured in his response, which is considered a more developed simulator concept, but also flagged the huge charge involved in the management of the new car’s energy states.

“This is actually the early day at this time, but just see the Formula E as a more extreme version where we are going. You can see how the driver manipulates the race and merit and how they deploy and how they deploy and get all these kinds of things to perform,” he said.

“It’s not going to that peak, but the drivers who have brain ability to understand and convenient all these demands will run well. In winter, the simulator is going to pay a lot of attention to the work of the simulator, and to ensure that we understand how it works and trying various driving styles.”

Principal Walls of Elbon’s team said that drivers should not panic after the new rules, after very initial impressions, although they admitted that the driver is working to reduce the workload.

“For the first time any of our simulator drivers left the 2026 rules, it was difficult, as it is a complete change on some aspects how you drive,” he explained. “Then the second time it became more normal – still complaints. And for the fourth time, there was not much really much in the discussion on it. It became just an ideal.

“So, whatever I ask to do is careful. Ask the driver how many times he has run the simulator because you postpone their answer. I guarantee you that this is once. It’s probably the first initial response. And those who have operated it four or five are like this: ‘I understand it.”

“Is it sufficiently sophisticated? We have found a lot of work to refine it, and we have found it to make it easy on the driver, because I think the charge is really very difficult, it’s very difficult for the driver at this time. But we have another six months to walk before there, so I believe that we can fix it.”

Walls do not share concerns over the potential decrease of overtaking due to the introduction of active aerodynamics on the front and back wings, as well as the current DRS device is being replaced by a power-unite-based overtaking ad called “manual overroid mode” called “manual overroid mode”.

“I think you are going to get a huge difference in straight speed at certain straight because you can play with energy and various mode,” he said. “And therefore, I think overtaking at some point can actually be pronounced, resulting in obstruction.

“Racing concept actually means that if you have a sharp car, I think you have more equipment in your disposal as a driver to be able to use this year, including even DRS.”