(Motorsport-Total.com) – McLaren believes that the initial adjustments to the power unit rules for the upcoming Miami Grand Prix should eliminate the need for drivers to “lift-and-coast” in qualifying.
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Formula 1 officials used the April break to revise the controversial 2026 regulations, which severely impacted qualifying and raised safety concerns due to increased speed differences between cars.
Drivers have so far been unable to use their natural driving style to push to the limit in qualifying, as the 2026 cars suffered from energy deficits due to the nearly 50-50 split between combustion power and electrical energy.
To achieve the optimal lap time, a lot of unusual behavior was required to charge the battery, including early lifting on the straights and coasting through fast corners. Drivers were even penalized for driving faster through corners, as they ran out of energy sooner on the subsequent straights.
The two most important measures to improve qualifying were increasing the super clip limit from 250 to 350 kW and reducing the energy recovery limit from eight to seven MJ.
Drivers should have a “more natural feeling”
According to Mark Temple, McLaren’s Technical Director for Performance, these changes should eliminate the need for lift-and-coast on a flying lap. “The biggest impact [of the rule adjustment] is from the drivers’ perspective,” explains Temple.
“The idea is to get rid of some of the things drivers don’t like in qualifying – that the car coasts into a high-speed chicane for a long time, instead of staying full throttle and then braking harder, which feels more natural.”
“There are two aspects to this. One is what we call ‘lift-and-coast’, which should no longer occur in qualifying. The driver lifts off the throttle, coasts into the braking zone, and then brakes.”
“Now we have a situation where this is more efficient and controlled by the powertrain, so the driver can stay full throttle and the power unit recovers energy. Straight mode remains active, so the car decelerates less.”
“Additionally, drivers will have a more natural feeling of going directly from full throttle to braking, without this intermediate phase. Furthermore, the total duration and length of individual super-clip or coasting phases will be significantly reduced. If something like this still occurs, it will only be to a very small extent,” says Temple.
Qualifying “much closer” to the past again
He expects that while energy management in 2026 will still bring peculiarities in driving style, he believes these will be more in line with what drivers were accustomed to in recent years under previous rules.
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“It’s actually much closer to examples we’ve seen in past years, such as tire management or some fuel management,” he explains. “This will ensure that qualifying feels significantly more natural for the drivers.”
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“It remains a formula where you want to use the available energy in the most efficient places, which differs somewhat from previous years where you could ignore that and didn’t have to worry about the power unit and available energy.”
“However, even in earlier regulations, there were situations where fuel management had a very significant impact on how one drove the car and raced – sometimes more so than electrical energy management,” emphasizes Temple.
“In recent years, however, fuel management no longer played a major role, but only a minor one in the race. So there are still some aspects that remain, but the more abstract things like this inefficient lifting and the desire to get back on the throttle – things that were particularly unnatural – should disappear or at least be largely reduced.”
Stella announces further changes
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella emphasizes that the series should remain open to further adjustments if necessary. At the same time, the FIA, the world motorsport governing body, is testing a so-called “low-power start detection system” to reduce the risk of slow starts from the grid.
“I think the changes for Miami are a positive step in the right direction,” said Stella, explaining: “There are already further measures planned to further improve the package introduced for Miami.”
“I think Formula 1 as a community should remain open: once we observe the effects of this package of changes, we will learn more about the new regulations and may need to make further adjustments.”
“We should have the openness and proactivity to analyze and implement these improvements,” says Stella. “And finally, some hardware changes should also be considered, rather long-term, so that we can choose the operating point of the power unit in such a way that fewer compromises are required from the chassis or driver’s perspective.”
“We believe this is possible, and we think all stakeholders should engage in this discussion with a willingness to contribute,” explains the McLaren team principal.
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