Halfway through the first season under Formula 1's new rules, there is no settled verdict on whether the racing is any good. Ask two people and you get two answers — sometimes about the same lap.
The optimists point up the grid. For the first time in years, pole position is genuinely up for grabs each weekend, and Mercedes' early dominance has started to wobble. "Personally, I'm really loving this season," said the host of the Formula Duck channel, arguing that the front of the field is closer than it has been in years. "This is the first F1 season in a while where the front running teams are so close to each other and often are fighting for the P1 places."
Overtaking is up, too. Previewing this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, YouTuber Mr Pulse expects Spa's long straights and easy passing to produce a glut of moves, only half-joking that "we're probably going to see 25 overtakes in the first five laps." Close qualifying and more passing is exactly what the 2026 rules were sold on.
The problem is what those cars are doing between the corners. The 2026 power units, which split their output roughly evenly between engine and battery, run out of electrical energy on long, fast sections — and drivers have not been shy about it. At Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton called it an "unprecedented energy challenge." Fernando Alonso went further, describing the situation as "quite sad" and renaming Becketts, one of the best corners in the world, a "charging station." Max Verstappen, never one to soften a verdict, likened the experience to driving in sand.
The Race's John Noble sees the same tension. Silverstone's fast, flowing final sector, he argued, is exactly where the current cars look worst, because the drivers are forced to lift and harvest energy where they should be flat out. "It's kind of a perfect storm of circumstance," Noble said, describing a layout that punishes energy-starved cars through its signature high-speed corners. Anything a driver gains by attacking those corners, he added, is dwarfed by the value of using them to recharge.
Even the critics concede it is not uniform. The same analysis pointed out that at several circuits "these cars work perfectly fine" — Miami, Monaco and Montreal among them. The cars only misbehave at specific straight-and-fast layouts. And the spectacle at the sharp end is real: Charles Leclerc's win at a chaotic, safety-car-ended British Grand Prix was Ferrari's first since 2024.
Then there is the middle of the grid, which has quietly become the weakest part of the show. Formula Duck, so enthusiastic about the leaders, was blunt about everyone else: the midfield is "actually pretty boring this year." The reason, he suggested, is a rulebook that rewards resources. Teams with "fat stacks of cash and experience" have understood the regulations quickly, while cash-strapped or inexperienced squads such as Williams, Haas, Audi and Cadillac have been left adrift. With the chaos that usually lives in the midfield transferred to the front, the worry is that once one team pulls clear at the top, the entertainment goes with it.
So is 2026 a triumph or a disappointment? Right now it is both, depending on where on the track — and the grid — you happen to be looking.
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