Battery state-of-charge graphics appeared on Formula 1's world feed at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, then quietly disappeared. At Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, two of the most energy-starved circuits on the 2026 calendar, viewers got no battery, speed or braking data at all. The graphics returned in Hungary, where the tight layout made deployment much less of a factor.
Asked this week why the information keeps vanishing, F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali did not accept the premise.
"The truth is exactly the other way around, because no one is interested in how you drive your car," Domenicali said. "People are interested if you're overtaking or not. That's the vast majority of the people."
He then reached for an unusual authority. George Lucas attended the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Domenicali said the conversation shaped his thinking.
"I had an incredible and interesting discussion with George Lucas on Saturday," he said. "He was in Hungary and gave me an incredible view on how the new fans are watching Formula 1, and he gave us [an] incredible [perspective] to see how we can really simplify things because the new fans are not understanding the truth [of] what is behind the scenes. They are fascinated by the fact that there is a lot of action."
Domenicali pointed to Max Verstappen's opening-lap move on Liam Lawson and Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1 in Budapest as the thing viewers actually want. "This is a piece of art that people just want to see, and [is] just connected to the quality of the drivers," he said. He added that the data has not been abolished: "Of course, for a niche of our fans, this data is relevant and of course it is available."
"It is an absurd shortcoming given how crucial the state of charge is to understanding not only the moment of the overtake, but the context around it in the build-up and aftermath," Straw wrote.
He also picked at the internal inconsistency. F1 pours graphical depth into F1 TV, telemetry overlays and the AWS-powered strategy insights that launched in Hungary. Why, Straw asked, does all of that serve the audience while the battery does not? His conclusion was blunt: "Lucas's argument is the right one for a filmmaker, but it is not what I want to see from sporting coverage."
Straw went further, floating a less flattering explanation than audience research — that F1 may simply be aware of how illusory an overtake looks when the on-screen numbers reveal it was delivered by a power offset of several hundred horsepower.
The sharpest response came from outside F1 entirely. Scott Pye, the Red Bull Supercars driver, took Domenicali's phrasing personally on his Apex Hunters podcast.
"For Stefano Domenicali to sit there insulting the fans, does anyone here actually care about the graphics on the halo that have been removed? I know I do. I care," Pye said.
Pye's wider point, delivered rather more colourfully, was that removing the data does not hide the problem: viewers can already see a car decelerating halfway down a straight, and stripping the graphic only removes the explanation, not the phenomenon. He was equally unimpressed by the choice of consultant, questioning what a Hollywood director could possibly know about what committed racing fans want.
Writing for Road & Track, Adam Cooper framed the row as a symptom rather than a dispute about screen real estate — a widening gap between long-standing followers and the audience F1 acquired through Drive to Survive, with the CEO openly designing coverage for the second group.
Domenicali was more emollient on the related subject of driver criticism of the 2026 rules, which has come loudest from Verstappen and, recently, Oscar Piastri.
"We are not here to put the tape on the mouth of anyone," he said. "The beauty of our sport is that everyone can have an opinion, but the opinion is an opinion. There is someone that has the duty to have a line."
The Dutch Grand Prix on 23 August will be the first test of whether the graphics return at a circuit where energy management genuinely bites.
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*Originally published on [Newsformula One](https://newsformula.one/article/domenicali-says-fans-do-not-care-about-battery-data-not-everyone-agrees). Visit for full coverage.*