Three races. Three one-two finishes for Mercedes. Drivers threatening retirement. A 50G crash caused by cars travelling at wildly different speeds. Qualifying sessions where the best drivers in the world can't push to the limit. Fernando Alonso saying his chef could drive his car. Max Verstappen calling it "Formula E on steroids."
Something had to give. And this week, it did.
On April 9, the FIA convened the first of a series of emergency meetings with teams, engineers and power unit manufacturers to discuss changes to the 2026 regulations. The outcome? A formal commitment to making tweaks to the energy management rules — before Miami.
F1 spent years building these regulations. It took three races to realise they need to change them. That is either impressively fast or terrifyingly slow, depending on your perspective.
Ahead of Suzuka, all five power unit manufacturers unanimously agreed to reduce the maximum permitted energy recharge in qualifying from 9 megajoules to 8 megajoules. Drivers spent less time harvesting on straights, and could attack a little harder. It wasn't enough — but it was a sign the FIA was listening, even before the big meetings began.
The Race has reported that there are six specific solutions being discussed. Here is every one of them, ranked from most urgent to longest-term:
Bearman's 50G crash at Suzuka happened because his car in boost mode was travelling ~50km/h faster than Colapinto's Alpine, which was harvesting. That speed differential is the most urgent safety issue in the sport right now. Any rule that reduces energy starvation will help — but a specific fix to qualifying closing speeds is also on the table.
Right now, cars can harvest 250kW via super clipping (on full throttle) versus 350kW via lift and coast. If super clipping is raised to match lift and coast, drivers will choose to harvest at full throttle instead of lifting — reducing the bizarre spectacle of decelerating cars on the straights. McLaren boss Stella was pushing for this before the season even started.
Counterintuitive but effective: reduce the maximum electrical output available in qualifying. Cars would be slower overall — but with less energy demand, they'd stop having to harvest mid-lap. Drivers could push flat-out again through corners like 130R. Leclerc might stop crying on the radio. Worth it.
A bigger version of the same idea. Cut the electrical output from 350kW to potentially 200kW in race conditions. Less energy, less starvation, less lift-and-coast. The cars would lose some of the "Mario Kart boost button" feel — which, frankly, most of the grid would celebrate.
More fuel flow means more power from the combustion engine — rebalancing the ratio back toward raw power. The problem: current engines were designed around the existing fuel flow limits. Changing it now risks pushing internal components beyond their design spec. Reliability failures would follow. Almost certainly shelved until 2027.
If cars could store more energy, they wouldn't run out on straights and wouldn't need to harvest so desperately. Simple in concept, impossible in the short term — batteries are physical components that take years to redesign. This is a 2027 or 2028 conversation at the earliest.
"It's Formula E on steroids. It's really anti-driving. It doesn't feel natural to a racing driver."
"What I love about this sport is when you get to Q3 and you have maximum pressure. At the moment this is not possible. It's a f***ing joke."
"The chef in the Aston Martin kitchen could drive the car through Turn 12. There's no skill involved when the system is harvesting."
"As the GPDA, we warned the FIA these accidents will happen. I hope it serves as an example. The racing is not OK."
Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: the FIA got the 2026 regulations wrong. Not catastrophically wrong, not unfixably wrong — but wrong enough that after three races, the entire grid is screaming, a driver nearly died, and the governing body is holding emergency meetings to change rules it spent years building.
The April 20 meeting is the most important date in F1's calendar right now. If meaningful changes are agreed and ratified before Miami, it could be the moment the 2026 era salvages itself. If the meeting produces watered-down tweaks that don't address the real issues, the drivers — led by Verstappen — will not stay quiet.
F1 has a month to fix what three years of regulation writing couldn't. The clock is running. The next race is Miami. And for once, the most important lap is happening not on a circuit, but in a meeting room in Geneva on April 20.
Thursday, April 9, 2026. The five-week break. No racing, no drama, all quiet. Except that on one extraordinary morning, the Formula 1 world woke up to a story that will reshape the paddock for years to come.
Gianpiero Lambiase — "GP", Max Verstappen's race engineer, the man behind the radio during four world championships, the voice in the ear of the most dominant driver of his generation — is leaving Red Bull to join McLaren.
And if that wasn't enough, reports from the Netherlands suggest that the man who engineered that switch, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, may already have a pre-contract signed with Ferrari.
One Italian engineer arriving at McLaren. One Italian engineer preparing to leave it. Red Bull losing yet another pillar of its dynasty. And Verstappen left to wonder what on earth he's still doing in Formula 1.
McLaren confirmed the deal on Thursday afternoon. Lambiase will join as Chief Racing Officer — a senior role currently handled by Stella himself on top of his team principal duties. The contract runs to his Red Bull expiry at end of 2027, though McLaren's wording of "no later than 2028" hints they're hopeful of an earlier release.
For those who need reminding of who Lambiase is: this is the man who has been in Verstappen's ear at every race since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix — the race Max won as an 18-year-old when he was promoted from Toro Rosso. Their relationship is one of the most celebrated in modern F1. Blunt. Funny. Brilliant. Irreplaceable.
"I have said to him I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too."
This is not an isolated event. This is the latest chapter in one of the most extraordinary talent bleeds in sports history. Let's count the bodies:
Here's where the plot gets properly Shakespearean. Dutch outlet De Limburger and F1 journalist Jacky Martens report that McLaren are pursuing Lambiase specifically because Andrea Stella has already agreed a pre-contract with Ferrari. One Italian engineer in, one Italian engineer out.
The suggestion is that Lambiase would ultimately become McLaren team principal — with Stella moving to Maranello to replace Fred Vasseur, who has been under pressure all season. Sky Sports reporter Craig Slater revealed something even more intriguing: Stella himself instigated McLaren's move for Lambiase. He went to find his own replacement.
Ferrari, asked directly by GPblog, said "no comment" — which in F1 means absolutely nothing either way. Vasseur's contract was reportedly renewed last year. But in Formula 1, contracts mean very little when the right offer arrives.
In 2021, in the middle of their first championship season together, Verstappen told Dutch broadcaster Ziggo Sport something that seems almost prophetic today: "I have said to him I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too."
He was talking about Lambiase. The man who is now confirmed to be leaving Red Bull at the end of 2027.
Verstappen's contract runs to 2028. He has an exit clause if Red Bull aren't competitive by mid-2026. He has already hinted at retirement multiple times this season. His four world championships team-mate at engineering is leaving. Every pillar of the dynasty he was part of is gone.
The question is no longer whether Verstappen leaves Red Bull. It's when — and whether he goes to another team or just goes home.
When the history of this era is written, this day — April 9, 2026 — might be the moment historians point to as the day Red Bull's dynasty officially died. Not on track, not in a race, not in a championship fight. In a press release during the off-season.
Newey. Marshall. Courtenay. Wheatley. Horner. Marko. And now Lambiase. Every single person who built that machine has left. The 2021-2024 Red Bull is a memory. What remains is a car Max Verstappen hates, an engine he can't trust, and a team that can no longer keep the people he needs around him.
McLaren, meanwhile, are not just building a fast car. They are systematically harvesting the brains behind the most dominant team of the last decade. That's not recruitment. That's a hostile takeover.
Imagine you're watching an F1 car blast down a long straight. The driver's foot is buried flat on the throttle. You expect the car to go faster and faster. Instead — it slows down. Not because of a brake. Not because of a lift. The driver is fully on the gas. And the car is losing speed anyway.
That's super clipping. And in 2026, it happens on almost every circuit, multiple times per lap, to every car on the grid.
This is the most bizarre and controversial phenomenon in modern Formula 1 — and once you understand why it happens, you'll understand exactly why half the grid wants to quit.
Think of the battery like a phone battery. In 2026, half the car's power comes from that battery. When it runs low, the car has to "charge on the go" — so the computer takes energy that would normally spin the rear wheels and uses it to recharge instead. The driver is still pushing the pedal to the floor. But the car is charging, not going. It's like pressing the accelerator in your car and having the engine charge the battery instead of moving you forward. Full throttle. Going slower.
Super clipping is just one of four ways the 2026 cars recharge their battery. Here's the full picture:
Classic. Driver brakes hard for a corner, the motor runs backwards and generates electricity. Works great. Drivers love it. Been around since 2014.
In sections where the driver doesn't need full power — say, a tight chicane — the system harvests some energy from the engine instead of using it all for speed.
Driver lifts off throttle early before a corner. The motor harvests at up to 350kW. Problem: it means wings go to high-drag mode, costing straightline speed.
Driver is fully on the throttle — but the system harvests anyway at up to 250kW. Energy that would go to the rear wheels goes to the battery instead. Car slows down at full gas. Fans confused. Drivers furious.
When super clipping is active, the speed loss is not subtle. Fernando Alonso clocked 50km/h slower through Turn 12 at Bahrain in the most extreme cases. At Suzuka's 130R — one of the most legendary high-speed corners in all of motorsport — cars arrived 20km/h slower than in 2025.
At Bahrain pre-season testing, Fernando Alonso — a two-time world champion and one of the greatest drivers ever — was watching data from Turn 12, where super clipping was active. The car was slowing down at full throttle. The skill of driving had been replaced by the computer making energy decisions. His verdict? The chef in the Aston Martin hospitality kitchen could drive the car through that corner, because the driver isn't actually doing anything.
"Probably the worst cars ever made. The 50/50 split between ICE and electrical power doesn't work because you're decelerating so much before corners."
"It's really anti-driving. It doesn't feel natural to a racing driver. I'm committing 100% and I'm not enjoying what I'm doing."
"What I love about this sport is when you get to Q3 and you have maximum pressure to deliver your best. At the moment this is not possible. It's a f***ing joke."
"None of the fans are going to understand it. It's ridiculously complex."
"It's perhaps not the disaster I feared — but I still wouldn't call this F1."
To understand super clipping you have to understand what the 2026 regulations removed: the MGU-H — the Motor Generator Unit for Heat. This device harvested energy from the exhaust gases at high speed, keeping the battery topped up continuously. It was small, invisible to spectators, and absolutely essential for energy management.
The FIA removed it for 2026 because it was incredibly expensive and too complex for new manufacturers to develop. Audi and Cadillac couldn't be expected to build one from scratch. So it went. And with it went the primary source of high-speed energy harvesting.
Without the MGU-H, teams now rely almost entirely on braking to recharge. At tracks with lots of heavy braking zones — like Bahrain or Hungary — this is manageable. At tracks with long, fast straights and few slow corners — Melbourne, Suzuka, Monza — the battery bleeds dry faster than it can be replenished. That's when super clipping steps in as a desperate solution.
McLaren's Andrea Stella proposed this during pre-season testing. Allowing 350kW of super clipping harvest means cars can charge faster at full throttle — reducing how often they need to do it. Doesn't eliminate the phenomenon, but makes it less dramatic and less frequent. FIA could implement quickly.
Drop the electrical power output from 350kW to 250kW in races. Cars would be less "energy-hungry" overall. Less need for aggressive harvesting. Downside: less power, lower top speeds. The FIA's Nikolas Tombazis has hinted this lever could be pulled if needed.
The most logical fix: just store more energy. A bigger battery means you have enough juice for a full push lap without needing to harvest mid-corner or mid-straight. But this requires a regulation change and a hardware redesign. Think 2027 at the earliest.
The device that was deleted specifically because it was too expensive and complex. Putting it back would solve the energy poverty problem overnight. Possibility: basically zero. Audi and Cadillac have already built without it. The FIA won't reverse this decision.
Super clipping is a symptom of a much bigger problem: the 2026 regulations asked for the most complex power unit in F1 history, then removed the one component that made energy management work at high speed. That's not a driver problem or a team problem. That's a regulation problem.
When Leclerc — one of the best qualifiers in the world — says he can't push to the limit in Q3 anymore because the computer is managing the battery, something has gone seriously wrong. When Alonso says a kitchen chef could drive the car through a high-speed corner, the sport has to listen.
The FIA and F1 are meeting in April specifically to discuss this. The first checkpoint is Miami. If changes aren't made, super clipping won't just be the most hated term in the paddock — it'll be the thing that defines 2026 as the season that nearly broke Formula 1.
