Formula One’s 2026 season has kicked off with a bang—and not all of it welcome. Three races in, the new regulations are under intense scrutiny, with driver complaints and a major safety scare at the Japanese Grand Prix forcing the sport’s governing body into action. At the center of the storm is Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater director, who insists the patient isn’t in critical care but admits some urgent tweaks are needed.
“It’s not like we’re discussing a complete rewrite,” Tombazis says. “We believe the patient is not in intensive care; the patient needs to just eat a couple of apples per day, not to have an open-heart surgery. There are topics from both the drivability and the safety point of view that we need to address.”
The 57-year-old engineer, who has been with the FIA since 2018 and was involved in the 2026 rules from their inception in January 2021, strikes a balanced tone. He rejects both extreme optimism and doom-mongering. “I don’t like to be going around saying: ‘Everything is fine, we don’t need to do anything,’ because clearly things do need to be done. Equally, I don’t like to say on the other extreme: ‘It’s all a mess.’ We have fans happy with the show, we’ve got an accident that was caused by specific aspects we need to solve and we’ve got some drivers who feel that some things can be improved.”
Driver reactions have split the grid. George Russell at Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari—drivers from teams leading the pack—have generally accepted the new formula, which emphasizes electrical energy management over a lap. But others are less impressed. Lando Norris has expressed distaste, while world champion Max Verstappen has repeatedly stated he’s so disenchanted he’s considering leaving the sport.
Tombazis takes the criticism in stride. “I don’t know if there’s ever much of a case when you are the headmaster or the referee when you get a pat on the back all the time,” he notes. “They usually get criticised, and we are big enough to know that.”
The urgency for change spiked after Oliver Bearman’s 190mph crash at Suzuka, caused by drastic closing-speed differences between cars. “Every accident at high speed is always a little bit of a shock,” Tombazis admits. “To say it was expected would be wrong but the closing speeds had been identified as a risk.”
Despite the alarm, the FIA is avoiding a hasty fix. “There have been talks about it but there was not easily the ability to act on it before we had a bit of time to analyse a few of the parameters,” Tombazis explains. “When we’ve introduced changes in a much more hurried way, the risk is that we make things worse or we cause all sorts of other issues, so that’s why we need to have a bit of time to analyse. Clearly safety is the number one priority.”
Tombazis brings a wealth of experience to the table, having worked in F1 since 1992 with stints at Ferrari, McLaren, and Benetton before joining the FIA. His analytical approach is now critical as the sport gears up for a series of high-stakes meetings.
Discussions are underway this month between the FIA, teams, power-unit manufacturers, and commercial rights holder FOM. A preliminary meeting on Thursday will assess technical and sporting considerations from the first three races, with another to follow the next Thursday. Driver input is also on the agenda.
These talks will culminate in a senior representatives’ meeting on April 20, involving team principals, CEOs, power-unit manufacturers, and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali. Regulatory changes will be decided there, subject to ratification by the world motorsport council, with the goal of implementing them by the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.
The FIA always planned for the 2026 rules to evolve, acknowledging the steep learning curve as teams deploy up to 200 engineers each to extract performance. “You can learn theoretically how to play the violin but until you play the violin you don’t necessarily understand what it involves,” Tombazis observes.
Yet, the complexity of the hybrid engines—affecting driver experience and fan perception—has sparked unprecedented disquiet. F1 insists fan reception has been positive, but balancing safety, performance, and satisfaction is a tightrope walk.
Tweaks will focus on energy management, not hardware overhauls. “These rules are what we collectively refer to as energy management rules that won’t require changes to hardware but may require some settings to change and some software,” Tombazis says. “Changes that are fundamentally possible to introduce very soon and go to the core of addressing closing speeds or driver satisfaction.”
He also hints at a phased approach. “We may decide that we want to have a phase one and a phase two and maybe give phase two a bit more time for some tweaks to be done by the manufacturers.”
As the clock ticks toward Miami, the challenge is to align safety imperatives with necessary adjustments. Tombazis remains optimistic about finding consensus. “Everyone is extremely passionate about this sport – drivers, fans – and when things are not perfect, they will be quite passionate about it. We’re not expecting people to sugarcoat their comments,” he says. “But I’m now hoping for broad consensus, that teams will be also supportive and we won’t be in a position where we have to argue too much.”
The outcome won’t satisfy everyone, but the FIA is committed to a measured, data-driven response. With the 2027 debate looming, these next few weeks could define the short-term future of Formula One’s new era.
