Piastri Not Fully Happy of New F1 Rules: "The Battle With Russell Felt Random"

Formula 1’s latest regulatory tweaks have done little to improve the quality or safety of the racing, according to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who offered a blunt assessment following Sunday's Miami Grand Prix.

A "Crazy" First Proper Experience

Piastri, who did not start the first two grands prix of the year and experienced minimal wheel-to-wheel combat at Suzuka after taking an early lead, finally got a comprehensive look at the revised regulations in the thick of the pack in Miami. His verdict was far from glowing, suggesting the sport's interventions have yielded only marginal gains.

When it came to race conditions, however, the Australian felt the fundamental dynamics remained untouched. "The races are basically exactly the same and I think today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and then having to defend and stuff like that. It’s pretty crazy, to be honest."

The "Random" Reality of Energy Management

During the Miami Grand Prix, Piastri found himself locked in a prolonged, seesaw battle with George Russell. The pair repeatedly traded positions, their fight dictated less by pure racecraft and more by fluctuating energy levels, complex harvesting and deployment patterns, and the strategic use of Overtake Mode.

For Piastri, the nature of this combat felt disjointed and unpredictable, while the closing speeds remained a significant concern.

"At one point George was one second behind me and managed to overtake me by the end of that straight," he explained. "It’s just a bit random."

The sheer velocity differential between an attacking and defending car continues to pose a massive challenge. "The closing speeds are huge and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do," Piastri elaborated. "Obviously for the overtaking driver, I wasn’t that pleased with one of the moves that George did, but I kind of found myself almost doing the same move about five laps later, just because the closing speed is enormous. So from that side of things, not much has really changed."

Hardware Limitations Dictate the Future

Despite his criticisms, Piastri acknowledged the open dialogue between the drivers and the sport's rule-makers. However, he remains skeptical that minor adjustments to the current rulebook can deliver the necessary improvements, pointing to the inherent limitations of the current generation of machinery.

"I think the collaboration from the FIA and F1 has been good, but there’s only so many things you can change with the hardware we have," Piastri concluded. "So some changes in the future are I think still needed for sure. How quickly we can do it is the big question."