– Not all drivers in the Formula 1 field have already warmed up to this year’s new regulations. Among others, Max Verstappen is one of the sharpest critics of the 2026 rules. Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar, on the other hand, sees the situation much more relaxed.
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“I think this is the first time in a long time that two cars with identical pace can overtake each other,” he highlights a positive point of the new regulations for him. Because even in the past season, there were significantly fewer overtaking maneuvers.
“If you look at last year, you always needed an advantage of about six, seven, or eight tenths to overtake the car in front of you. Sometimes even more,” the Frenchman recalls.
In addition, after a successful maneuver, one often knew “that the car behind you would never overtake you again,” says Hadjar. In the first races of the 2026 season, on the other hand, there were duels in which positions changed several times.
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“If anything, it makes the racing better, that’s for sure,” Hadjar judges. Critics, on the other hand, complain that while there are certainly significantly more overtaking maneuvers this year, these are merely artificially induced by the new regulations.
“It sometimes seems a bit artificial,” Hadjar also admits in this context, but emphasizes that the situation is “definitely better than before.” It is now just a matter of finding “the right balance” in overtaking maneuvers.
Therefore, Hadjar would not change much about the new regulations. “Just more efficient batteries, that’s all,” he answers when asked what could be done even better. Apart from that, he seems to be quite satisfied with the “new” Formula 1 already.
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