Lewis Hamilton Exposes “Ridiculously Complex” F1 Issue

The 2026 season has finally started, with the first pre-season test in Bahrain underway. Eleven teams have shown up on the grid and are preparing for the massive challenge of the new regulations. With the regulation change, many aspects of the power unit and the challenger are set to be changed. Now, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton reveals the ‘extremely complex’ factor about the cars that might be difficult to understand for the fans.

The 2026 regulations have finally ruled out the previous Venturi wind tunnel effects. In this regulation, the electrical and traditional combustion are at an equal split in the power unit. While drivers are having to learn to drive F1 challengers from scratch, it might be even more difficult for the fans to fully grasp what is going on in the cars.

Lewis Hamilton firmly believes that none of the fans would understand the technicalities of the ongoing engine regulations. The Briton asserted that they were ridiculously complex, and they couldn’t be understood easily, like some of the previous regulations. Hamilton revealed how the engineers claimed that people needed mechanical engineering degrees to understand the regulations and how it all worked.

None of the fans are gonna understand it, I don’t think; it’s so complex – it’s ridiculously complex. I was sat in a meeting the other day, and they were taking us through it, and it’s like you need a degree to fully understand it all.

Lewis Hamilton said, as reported by RacingNews365.

Thankfully, Ferrari and all the other teams have highly capable engineers who are capable of developing the world’s fastest single-seaters. Moreover, Lewis Hamilton reckoned that it isn’t so difficult for the drivers to understand how they manage the car and extract maximum performance out of it. For now, all teams and drivers are managing expectations and not hoping for a miraculous start to the 2025 season.

And in terms of managing it, it’s pretty straightforward, I would say.

Lewis Hamilton added.

Lewis Hamilton claims ‘everyone in the same boat’ with 2026 F1 regulations

None of the team seems to have a clear advantage leading into the 2026 season. Though Mercedes was rumored to be at the forefront of development, especially with a borderline illegal compression ratio trick. Despite early indicators for the German carmaker, Lewis Hamilton believes that none of the teams are clearly dominant from the get-go, and everyone is more or less in the vicinity of one another with pace.

Lewis Hamilton predicted that driving the challengers could be different under the race trim with the complete package. Moreover, the cars now learnt the way a person was driving the car following the culmination of a lap. However, the algorithm would now be more sensitive to errors on the track and provide noisy data. As such, all teams understood the things and hence were in the same boat.

Maybe in race trim is going to be different, we will see, But then there also is a system that can automatically, once you finish your lap, it learns the way that you’re driving. But, say for example, you lock up and go wide and cover more distance, it affects that algorithm. So we’re just trying to get on top of it and understand it – but everyone’s in the same boat.

Lewis Hamilton noted.

Despite the seemingly difficult scenarios, the 2026 season will produce exciting racing, especially at the forefront. Eleven teams and 22 drivers will battle for the pole position and the victory over the season, which will definitely shake things up. For now, all teams are hoping to gain the most learnings as possible and start development for the 2026 season.

Read More: Max Verstappen’s Early Reaction to Red Bull’s 2026 F1 Car Revealed

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