Possible fix suggested to combat “awkward” defending in F1 2026 battles

Alex Albon has suggested a possible fix to combat “awkward” defensive moves during wheel-to-wheel battles under Formula 1’s new regulations.

A new trend of ‘yo-yo racing’ has emerged this year, with drivers frequently swapping positions as a result of new power unit rules that place greater emphasis on energy management and battery levels.

Drivers have warned about the potential dangers of different deployment strategies in combat and expressed concerns it was only a matter of time before a big accident occurred.

Those fears were realised at the Japanese Grand Prix with Ollie Bearman crashing into the barriers at 50G after being caught out by significant closing speeds when chasing down Franco Colapinto.

Bearman swerved to the left to avoid Colapinto’s much-slower Alpine and took to the grass at over 190 mph, before spinning into the barriers in a scary incident that prompted further driver calls for the rules to be changed.

F1’s governing body the FIA has confirmed that the topic will be discussed during meetings taking place during the upcoming April break following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian double-header due to the Iran war.

Although Albon did not see Bearman and Colapinto’s incident, the Williams driver branded F1’s new look racing as “sketchy” and revealed the subject was brought up during the drivers’ briefing at Suzuka.

“We were actually talking about that in the drivers’ briefing, just about all the closing speeds and moving and defending and all those things,” Albon said.

“It feels really awkward now because you want to defend but you are sometimes worried about the car behind, if they are in control of their car. Maybe we just need to make the SLM [Straight Line Mode] a bit more stable, or less powerful, or something like that. More like regular DRS that you can control quite easily.”

Japanese GP turns into Williams ‘test session’

Albon was beset by issues in his Williams car all weekend in Japan, leading to a cryptic team radio outburst after suffering a Q1 exit in qualifying.

The race then turned into a “test session” for Albon after he fell to the back of the back and could not keep up with the cars ahead.

Albon ended up finishing two laps down in 20th and last of the classified runners after making a late pit stop.

“We’ve been trying to understand the issues from [qualifying],” he explained to F1 TV. “Not sure we understand them still so we’ll keep looking into it and at the same time why not do a bit of pit stop practice and a bit of front wing testing. That’s all we could do today.”

On the problems, Albon added: “It’s hit and miss. At the start of the race it was fine and I could stay with the group and then it’s not fine and I fall back. We’ll look into. We’ve got five weeks. If we don’t find it in the five weeks then I’ll be a bit worried.”