The FIA showed the plans for the new F1 cars in 2026. These cars will focus more on electric energy and will have less drag and downforce.
Russell, who represents the drivers, thinks these changes could affect safety. He said, “The cars will be very fast on the straights, maybe around 360km/h in most tracks. That’s very impressive. But we need to think about safety, especially if there’s a crash at that speed. It could be dangerous.”
He’s worried about what could happen on fast street circuits like Jeddah and Baku. Russell wants the people who make the rules to think if even faster speeds are necessary for the 2026 cars.
He said, “When it comes to safety, sometimes we need accidents to happen before we make changes. We need to make sure everything is safe before these new rules come in. The cars will have very little downforce on the straights, so it might feel like flying through the air. And if it’s raining on a street circuit and you’re going very fast, it could be dangerous. So, we need answers to these questions.”
Russell knows the FIA is looking at these issues, but he wonders if fans really need or want to see cars going even faster.
He said, “The cars are already very fast. Do we need them to go even faster? Maybe we’ll reach speeds of 400 kilometers per hour. But we need to think about what’s best for the sport and the fans.”
Russell thinks it would be sad to lose some of the high-performance features of the current cars. But if it makes the racing better, it might be worth it.
He said, “We want fast cars, but we also want good racing. If having less downforce means better racing, then maybe it’s a good compromise. We need to decide what’s most important: having fast cars or having exciting races.”
