Carlos Sainz: Drivers slamming new cars publicly “self-harming” for F1

Carlos Sainz believes constant public criticism of Formula 1’s new cars by drivers is only “self-harming” for the series, and thinks these comments should be kept private.

The 2026 car regulations have come in for immense criticism on Saturday following qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix.

Reigning world champion Lando Norris said F1’s cars have gone from “best to worst”, while Max Verstappen said the formula was “not correct”.

Much of the criticism centres on the 50/50 split between energy deployment and internal combustion on the new engines, which is leading to speed drops in power-hungry parts of the Albert Park circuit.

Friday’s driver briefing in Melbourne is said to have gotten heated between the drivers and FIA, as they lobby for changes to the cars.

Car feedback must be “constructive”, but “no one is happy”

Asked by Crash.net about what was said in the drivers’ briefing, he said: “Like I said in testing, all the criticism I have about the regulations I’m going to try to keep constructive towards the FIA and FIM, trying not to belittle the sport too much because, in the end, I think it’s just self-harming to keep the fans and the journalists… if the drivers are overly negative about this set of regualtions, then I think everyone goes in at it.

“And I think the best forums are the drivers’ briefings or personal conversations with Stefano [Domenicali] and the FIA.

“It’s clear that so far no one is happy and the only thing we feel is there seems to be a lot of plasters on top of another to try to solve this fundamental issue that this 50/50 hybrid system is giving us a lot of headaches.”

Sainz endured a torrid qualifying day in Australia, as car issues meant he couldn’t run and will line up at the back of the field.

“All the problems that we didn’t have reliability-wise in Bahrain testing, seems like they all came out today,” he said.

“I think Alex [Albon, who was 15th] has been struggling all weekend when he’s been out on track.

“I don’t know, because my few laps in FP1 were more competitive than I expected.

“But, I don’t know where we could have got to because literally I had no laps in FP2: I didn’t put the softs on in FP2, didn’t do laps in FP3 and didn’t go out in Q1.”