Alex Albon slams FIA’s overtaking rules: “F1 is becoming a contact sport”. Alex Albon criticizes the FIA's new overtaking guidelines,.

Alex Albon was not pleased with the new guidelines issued by the FIA for the Austrian Grand Prix. These documents offer more detailed instructions on how stewards should evaluate overtaking maneuvers, using hypothetical scenarios to determine which driver has the right of way during an overtake.

The Thai driver expressed frustration with these updates, especially considering recent stewarding decisions he believes were unfair. “I don’t like how we’re racing at the moment,” he told the media, referencing the incident at the start of the Spanish GP where he was forced off track. “Turn 1 in Barcelona was a good example. If the other car pushes you wide, releases the brake, and doesn’t leave space, then technically the corner is theirs. But at that point, you’re already so far into the turn that your only option is to go off track and take the corner through the escape route.”

He added that he experienced a similar situation in Canada: “I had the same issue in Montreal. If I steer into a car that releases the brake on the inside and it hits me, then they get penalized. So, if I spin, even though I know it’s not avoidable and that they’ll hit me, I benefit from that. You’re turning this into a contact sport,” Alex Albon said, referring directly to the FIA. “What I tried to do was avoid the other car and avoid a crash, but then I got penalized for doing so.”

During the interview, Alex Albon also expressed his willingness to help the FIA refine these rules so that similar incidents can be judged quickly and consistently: “I think we’ll keep talking about it. These types of scenarios come up a lot in driver briefings,” the former Red Bull man revealed. “We understand it’s difficult. We don’t think we know more than the FIA—we’re just trying to work together to clarify the rules and understand what we can and can’t do. I think I should probably change my approach as well and stick closer to the rulebook. As drivers, we try to exploit the regulations, and that makes things harder when you’re on the outside of a corner,” he concluded.