Autosport‘s recent exclusive interview with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali generated many responses, among the most energetic of which had been directed at him waving off the difficulty of whether or not overtaking has change into a case of amount over high quality beneath the newest technical rules.
“Some individuals are saying it’s synthetic,” he stated. “What’s synthetic? Overtaking is overtaking.
“And other people have a brief reminiscence as a result of within the turbo age within the Eighties – I used to be already following fairly effectively Components 1 – the lift-and-coast utilizing completely different turbo, completely different velocity and it’s a must to save in racing as a result of in any other case the gas tank was too small.
“Possibly among the individuals are criticising or having some feedback have a brief reminiscence. So look again within the 80s, the turbo time, these items had been there.”
There may be a lot to unpack on this handful of sentences. Instantly after the opening grand prix of the season in Australia, F1 was eager to promulgate the sheer variety of overtaking strikes versus the earlier yr by way of its social channels – and the response was so unfavorable that it has been reasonably extra cautious since then.
However, the official line stays that extra is healthier, whatever the widespread faculty of thought that the ‘yo-yo racing’ triggered by completely different ranges of obtainable enhance is basically meaningless.
The query of obtainable enhance and vitality administration performs into the separate-but-related matters of the place drivers are having to carry and coast, and even interact in tremendous clipping, to handle cost – and the way that impacts each the spectacle and security.
The 2026 Australian GP had 120 overtakes, in comparison with 45 in 2025
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Photos by way of Getty Photos
In Japan, few had been impressed by the sight of 130R, as soon as among the many extra daunting challenges in grand prix racing, turning into little greater than a glorified charging station. The disparity in closing speeds which triggered Oliver Bearman’s shunt also gave pause for thought.
Within the case of amount vs high quality, Domenicali finds himself in opposition to no much less an eminence than 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell, who was additionally a title contender in ’86 and ’87, when the turbo period was in its pomp.
True or false
Mansell was additionally doing the rounds within the press final week, in his role as ambassador for and special guest of the Pop-Up Hotel at Silverstone, which overlooks the location of certainly one of his most memorable overtaking manoeuvres in F1: the Hangar Straight and Stowe nook, the place Mansell blitzed previous Williams team-mate Nelson Piquet to win the 1987 British Grand Prix.
“I would get shot for saying this,” he informed Autosport. “However, sadly, among the overtakes are simply completely false. I imply, among the overtakes look nice and you then come out the following nook and the automobile simply blasts previous you – the opposite automobile goes backwards – as a result of the pc’s supplying you with the additional energy not on the proper time.
“The motive force does not management that, clearly, as a result of he would not have employed it. I feel it was Lando [Norris] who was quoted, ‘Nicely, I did not wish to overtake him [Lewis Hamilton in Japan] going into the quick nook, into the chicane. However I had no alternative, you see.’
“Popping out of the nook, he is within the lead after which the opposite automobile [Hamilton] simply blasts previous him once more. Taking place the straight. So, I feel you have to be very cautious.
“As a result of – neglect me, it does not matter about me, however the followers around the globe, I do know an terrible lot of them, are very grumpy and, to be truthful to the followers, I agree with them.”
The reigning world champion expressed frustration in Japan that his battle with Hamilton was disrupted by the results of software program intervention
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Components 1 by way of Getty Photos
Judging the standard of overtaking is all the time going to contain a component of subjectivity. There might be those that, just like the industrial rights holder, take the view that overtaking is overtaking, and the extra of it the higher.
However this comes throughout as reasonably tone deaf and dismissive within the face of such widespread and well-founded criticism. Totally different vehicles have all the time had completely different efficiency parameters, sure, however the underlying dramatic worth of any sporting spectacle hinges on whether or not the second was ‘earned’ or not. An overtaking manoeuvre executed with guile, ability and bravado will resonate multiple decided by a machine-learning algorithm and a battery.
It is truthful to say that the addition of every automobile’s ‘state of cost’ to the F1 TV graphics has been helpful to our understanding of occasions as they play out earlier than us, however they don’t make the center beat quicker.
Communicate to any F1 fan of a sure classic and so they may in all probability identify, off the highest of their head, among the biggest overtaking strikes pulled off by Mansell – to call however one eminent historic driver. Swooping across the exterior of Gerhard Berger, seemingly in defiance of the legal guidelines of physics, on the Peraltada in Mexico in 1990. Wheel to wheel with Ayrton Senna at Barcelona in 1991. Piquet at Silverstone in 1987. Boxing in Senna behind Stefan Johansson’s Onyx to seize the lead in Hungary in 1989.
Whereas the opening grands prix of 2026 have, on the face of it, been action-packed, a lot of the buying and selling of locations has been decided by battery ranges reasonably than bravura. Apparently, the so-called ‘energy-poor’ tracks – Albert Park and Suzuka – have been essentially the most blighted by ‘faux’ overtaking, although there have been exceptions reminiscent of Charles Leclerc’s dismissal of George Russell in Japan.
In China, the place the large cease at Flip 14 and the tightening radius of Turns 1-2-3 positioned extra emphasis on driver judgement, a lot of the motion felt much less superficial.
The 1987 British GP, the place Mansell broke the Silverstone lap report a number of occasions throughout his hunt of Piquet within the latter phases
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
F1 claims a considerable proportion of the viewers shares its opinion that any overtaking is sweet overtaking – though when Domenicali was invited to drill down into the analysis, he talked across the query reasonably than answering it.
A lot of the fanbase is left chilly except the overtaking is decided by a driver seizing the second, and commanding the ability by their proper foot, reasonably than the intervention of some heuristic byte-juggler. There may be ample proof of this in Autosport‘s inbox, the responses on social media, and the feedback on our web site and YouTube channel.
We (do not) have lift-off
So, past the matter of whether or not “overtaking is overtaking”, is the lift-and-coast comparability with the Eighties actually the mic drop the apologists for the current rules suppose it’s?
Once more, there are parallels with the current day in that vitality administration turned a side of the competitors – primarily as a result of tighter gas tank capability was one of many levers the FIA pulled to rein in turbo efficiency, together with limits on most enhance. However it’s not a like-for-like comparability, as Mansell made clear when Autosport put to him the declare that drivers additionally lifted and coasted within the Eighties.
“No, we did not,” he stated, repeating his place for emphasis. “No, no, we did not. If you happen to lifted and coasted, it was like feathering. Feathering a throttle while you’re slipstreaming any individual and deciding to not overtake them, that is saving gas and feathering. That is good.
“Having to have a pc simply take over the operating of the automobile and harvest for the battery, that is one thing completely completely different. And we did not decelerate 50 to 70km/h going into the quickest corners. So, it is a bit of a stretch to match that, I’ve to say.”
Mansell denies that carry and coast was a giant factor within the ’80s
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photos
Clearly there was no hybrid system on the vehicles in the course of the Eighties, so no electrical motor to cost the battery by means of magnetic resistance. Then, lifting off would purely have been to avoid wasting gas reasonably than harvesting vitality.
The place the comparability begins to fall down is the relative crudity of the gas calculations in the course of the Eighties. This was an period when the gas injection pumps had been normally powered by the engine’s camshaft, as had been the metering models.
Underneath the 220-litre tank, no-refuelling guidelines launched in 1984, McLaren dominated – partly as a result of its Porsche-built TAG V6 turbo was essentially the most fuel-efficient on the grid, if not essentially the most highly effective, as a result of race tempo had been the important thing growth benchmark reasonably than peak qualifying energy. However, the crew was bedevilled by difficulties with the superior Bosch Motronic engine administration system.
On this period, gas saving was rather more haphazard, decided by engineers calculating the speed of burn forward of the race after which handing their drivers a goal tempo, which can or could not have been appropriate, even when the drivers selected to observe it. Brief-shifting beneath acceleration was the chief fuel-management tactic other than turning down the turbo enhance strain, together with ‘feathering’, whereas for many lift-and-coast was a measure of final resort if the vehicles started to splutter within the closing laps.
Pore by means of the outcomes of Eighties grands prix and you can find numerous examples of late retirements brought on by operating out of gas. That is mainly as a result of instruments to offer real-time indications of how a lot remained on board did not exist till the center of the last decade – and even then, they weren’t all the time very correct.
Let’s take the well-known instance of the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix, by which 25 vehicles began however solely seven had been operating on the ultimate lap – six should you low cost Thierry Boutsen, who needed to push his automobile over the ending line and was finally rewarded with second place. Seven drivers ran out of gas, together with on-the-road winner Alain Prost, who halted on the cool-down lap and was disqualified when his automobile was discovered to be underweight.
Nearly the complete grid ran out of gas at Imola in 1985
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
Senna led a lot of the race in his Renault-powered Lotus, solely to expire of gas 4 laps from the chequered flag. Piquet (Brabham-BMW), Stefan Johansson (Ferrari), Mansell, and Prost’s team-mate Niki Lauda additionally halted with dry tanks. Johansson truly inherited the lead from Senna and his gas readout continued to insist there was lots within the tank at the same time as his engine started to splutter on its dregs.
Prost had been fuel-saving all through after dropping away from an early battle with Senna. “Bosch had been growing the system to work out precisely how a lot gas we had been utilizing and we knew Imola was going to be tight anyway,” Prost’s race engineer Tim Wright told Autosport in a 2020 retrospective on this grand prix.
“The entire method to the race was we had been going to must take it pretty simple and simply see how issues panned out. We had been advising Alain of the tempo he must be sustaining.”
Reminiscence is selective and only a few racing drivers would take pleasure in being described as “taking it simple” throughout a grand prix, however indubitably gas saving was an element within the turbo period after F1 adopted a set tank dimension. Then as now, carrying extra weight introduced a laptime penalty, so it was to be anticipated that groups ran as near the margins as potential – it is simply that again then, the technique of measuring the altering load had been a lot cruder and inexact.
Trendy race engineers can inform their drivers precisely the place and when to carry off or apply much less throttle – though, more and more, a lot of this course of is being carried out by machine-learning software program.
Different drivers energetic within the Eighties, together with Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle, have identified that lift-and-coast was a necessary a part of the toolbox within the limited-fuel turbo period, together with short-shifting and dialling down enhance pressures. Have been they doing it lap-in, lap-out, in exact areas, although? Not a lot as now.
Utility of ways reminiscent of lift-and-coast within the fashionable period is rather more measured and exact, a digital reasonably than analogue course of. You may argue that “advising Alain of the tempo” is much like that fashionable piece of engineer converse, “driving to a delta”.
What’s undeniably completely different, although, is how a lot of that was decided by the motive force’s intuition, and their proper foot.
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