Parc Ferme: Formula One Management's wet fish to the drivers' faces

What occurred later in the race rendered Formula One Management's (FOM) decision to promote the film and the actors an inappropriate choice.

Super Mario Karts has become the poster term for everything wrong with the new 2026 regulations. Such a description must irk the powers that be.

The term belittles F1 and those keen to peddle the idea that it is still a serious sport. The timing of the film’s launch must have seemed like the perfect opportunity to make light of the criticism.

Jack Black, whilst not an established F1 fan, enthusiastically gurned in front of cameras, jumping around together with Chris Pratt and Anya Taylor-Joy.

The latter is a known Lewis Hamilton aficionado and regular on the grid outside of promotional requirements. While she conducted herself with a sense of decorum, the other two personalities-for-hire entertained the media. I guess to legitimize F1’s increasing bias to entertainment over substance.

Then it happened. Suddenly, the jolly japes and ironic messaging prior to the race became hollow as Ollie Bearman slammed into the barriers, sustaining a 50G impact. Enough to put a crimp on anyone’s day!

The cause of this heavy impact was exactly what had been predicted with the new PU regulations. Franco Colapinto was ‘super clipping’ whilst approaching the flat-out section to ‘the spoon’.

Apparently, this was an involuntary action, delivered by the algorithms designed to harvest energy. Unfortunately Bearman wasn’t, creating an estimated speed differential of around 50-70km/h.

As Colapinto moved further to the left, Ollie was forced to take avoiding action. Unfortunately, this meant he had to take to the grass, relegating him to passenger status in his car until he came to an abrupt stop.

The big concern in the Paddock was that apparently, Colapinto’s car was not displaying the harvesting light, giving the unsuspecting Bearman the idea that the Alpine driver was still at full speed.

Either way, in that section, visibility of the car ahead at these speeds doesn’t give the driver much time to react. It must be understood that race drivers assume two things: everyone is driving in the same direction and at a similar velocity. The latter has now been invalidated with the new 2026 regulations.

The young Brit can consider himself lucky to get away with some heavy bruising to the right knee, and justifiably, the need for some new overalls.

However, the incident has again raised the spectre of a serious accident waiting to happen. Carlos Sainz (GPDA director) is urging the FIA to prioritize safety over excitement, and Max Verstappen is suggesting the ‘safety’ clause to force through engine regulation changes, specifically targeting the ICE/Battery 50/50 power split.

It’s easy to blame the FIA here, but Parc Ferme can’t help but feel that doing so is shooting the messenger. The commercial benefits to F1 mainly reside with FOM (unless things have changed).

The current set of PU regulations primarily rewards F1’s marketing strategy. As for FOM’s Mario Kart World play, this may have all been a coincidence, but I’m not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

However, as predicted, we will see some changes shortly that will hopefully relieve the situation, before a driver gets seriously painted into the scenery.

We now have the time and data to get it right and for Pirelli to identify compounds that require more than a pit stop.