The 2026 Formula 1 cars are not pure, rawness of racing is lost

Last weekend's 2026 Australian Grand Prix was a reality check for the sport as we found out firsthand how the new cars behave with their 50/50 power units—internal combustion and electric.

And as F1's Spin Doctor and CEO Stefano Domenicali goes on trying to shove the new formula down our throats, the overwhelming reactions from true fans criticizing the racing in Melbourne last Sunday tell the true story.

Now, former driver Johnny Herbert, who drove between 1989 and 2000, knows what an F1 car should be, and based on what he saw in Melbourne, he wasn't too enthralled.

Trying to find some positive to start with, Herbert said: "From an entertainment point, I was quite surprised because I thought it was going to be dull, with little overtaking coming into play.

"I know the overtakes that came up were artificial, as everybody is saying. But if the entertainment works for the fan, then I would probably just about accept it.

"But I don't accept it as a pure F1 car," he added. "I do understand what the drivers are saying when they're not being able to drive the cars, and they're not.

"The technology should aid the driver, but it shouldn't drive the driver. And there is too much of the technology compromising the drive for the driver.

"There's got to be a balance between those two things. Is the technology too excessive? Yes."

Explaining further, Herbert, a winner of three Grands Prix, said: "The start, for example. Where they're off the line after the lights go out and they haven't got any battery because the thing's flat because you can't charge it when you're doing that lap to the grid, for example.

"Somehow that needs to be rectified," he warned. "Had [Franco] Colapinto not managed to evade [Liam] Lawson that could have been quite a big accident on the track. The wheel could have potentially come off and gone over the fence. So, there's the danger element, which I know the drivers have alluded to.

"But I'm still waiting to see what happens when we go to China next week and the races after that."

F1 has always been considered the pinnacle of motorsport with the most advanced technology, but Herbert reckons the rule makers have gone too far this time.

He said: "The true Formula 1 cars are not there now. The ability of a Max [Verstappen], of a Lewis [Hamilton], of an [Ayrton] Senna, of an [Alain] Prost, of a [Michael] Schumacher, to always be able to push the boundaries, control the speed of the car through those massively high-speed corners like we have in Melbourne, was where the driver was really, tested.

"We've almost lost that. The technology has probably gone too far," the 61-year-old lamented.

Looking back on his own experience, Herbert recalled: "When I was coming through the sport, there was one place where what were called sports prototypes went to Le Mans to do that type of development of that type of technology. Le Mans is there for that technology. Is Formula 1 there to do a similar thing? I'd question that.

"That actual rawness and that 'Wow' factor of a driver going through a corner at 200 miles an hour has been reduced so there's less of the driver being the one who creates that 'Wow.'

"It's the technology that's creating that 'Wow' of sorts. And that is the wrong way round. You want it to be the driver who pulls it out of the bag, not technology doing it for the driver.

"I know there is a different toolbox for the way that the cars work now. And there's a skill to that. But the rawness of it is being lost. That's the part of it where I have a problem," Herbert concluded. (Source: Snabbare)