Fernando Alonso isn’t indulging in profound philosophical musings about humanoid robots replacing humans, or people becoming servants to machines. Nor is this a debate about sentient AI. He’s talking about the 2026 Formula 1 regulations—and his concern is far more concrete: that they risk turning driving into a process, rather than a pure test of skill.

The 2026 rules push power units toward an almost 50/50 split between electric power and internal combustion, placing energy management at the centre of the driving experience. What has emerged from early track running is that many of the long-feared consequences are already materialising.

Drivers are lifting and coasting even on flat-out qualifying laps. They’re downshifting on long straights to manage energy deployment. This isn’t theoretical anymore—it’s happening.

Reaction across the grid has been mixed, but Alonso’s view carries weight. Having driven through four major engine regulation eras, he tested the new Aston Martin AMR26 in Barcelona and came away unconvinced. In a recent media interview, he was blunt: the 2026 cars are no more fun to drive than those that came before.

“I think all the regulations have their own special things and different driving techniques are needed for different cars and different sets of regulations,”

“Some of the energy management and some of the driving that you have to do in order to optimise the energy around the lap and sometimes even in qualifying, which is a little bit annoying – from a driver point of view, you want to drive 100 per cent.”

“Now you need to think a little bit more than that, but I don’t know. I’ve been driving in IndyCar, and the main game there is to save fuel for 75 per cent of the race.”

“You start with the green light on the first lap, and you finish with the chequered flag on the last lap. That’s part of the racing, and you get used to it very, very fast.”

“The initial feeling is that you will like to drive flat out, and have a different car. But F1 went into this direction, and these hybrid power units that requires this energy management.”

“I think we will get used to, but, yeah, I think we will never go back to the late 1990s or early 2000s where the cars were light and fast, with the noise of the engine.”