Flavio Briatore questions 2026 F1 rules: “Cars are close, drivers battling—why change now?”. Flavio Briatore questions the 2026 F1 regulation changes.

Flavio Briatore and the 2026 Formula 1 rules
Flavio Briatore skillfully sidesteps questions about Alpine’s position on the power struggle over the 2026 F1 regulations. While discussions continue in the paddock on whether—and if so, how, as discussed in the latest episode of our video podcast “I Doppiati”—to modify the draft rules that will come into effect next season, the Piedmont-born manager shifts attention to the actual need to once again overhaul the technical regulations, just as teams were finally reaching performance convergence. It’s a long-standing issue that, unfortunately, resurfaces in the 2024–2025 period, but was also discussed back in 2021 after years of Mercedes’ dominant run.

The Alpine F1 boss speaks
“I think it’s wrong to change the regulations,” said Flavio Briatore live on Sky. “Right now, we have ten to twelve cars within two tenths of a second, and that’s what we’ve always hoped for. We wanted cars very close to each other so we could see five, six, seven different drivers capable of winning Grands Prix. And instead, we change the rules, and I don’t know why. We all wanted an F1 with close racing and drivers battling each other. We got there, and what did we do? We changed the rules again.”

“It remains to be seen,” he added, “but it’ll be a surprise what happens. I absolutely wouldn’t have changed the rules. Costs have increased, and now— as we’ve seen even at the end of practice—there are eight or ten cars within just a few tenths. You can’t get better than that.” – the Italian manager pointed out.

The 75-year-old Alpine executive advisor concluded his remarks by pointing out another problem: teams may have already missed the right timing to change the rules, given how little time remains before the new technical framework comes into force. “This is another problem we have. We wanted to change the rules, but now we need to be clear about what these F1 regulations and next year’s guidelines are.” “Because that means by October, the car has to already be ready,” Flavio Briatore concluded.