There really is an Ai problem with F1 cars this season

[John S]

Main issue seems to be Software that learns lap to lap, if individual drivers have poor or different laps Ai doesn't quite improve things it simply learns about what has happened and tries to make nonsense of it.
That's the view of Oscar Piastri in this piece below from F1chronicle.com.

Oscar Piastri has vented his frustration at Formula 1’s power unit software, saying qualifying grids are increasingly being “decided by computers behaving or misbehaving” rather than pure driving performance.

The McLaren driver’s comments followed a difficult Belgian Grand Prix weekend in which he qualified seventh, three places behind teammate Lando Norris, a result he felt did not reflect matching Norris through the corners at Spa-Francorchamps.

“It sucks. I can’t really say it any other way than that,” Piastri said of how heavily the electrical side of the 2026 power units now shapes results. “When you’ve got qualifying grids decided by computers behaving or misbehaving, it’s a pretty crap way of going racing.”

Piastri was far from alone in raising the issue at Spa-Francorchamps, the most power sensitive circuit on the 2026 calendar given its long flat out sections. George Russell blamed Mercedes after his car was drained of battery almost immediately at the start of the race, contributing to a first lap crash, while Max Verstappen, F1’s most vocal critic of the new engine rules all season, could not resist another dig after finishing third.

For Piastri, the frustration was less about the result and more about the lack of clarity behind it. “I certainly wouldn’t have been the only person,” he said. “I know George has had a lot of issues with that this weekend, and maybe the last couple of weekends. And speaking to some others, it’s a similar story.

“Here it’s obviously exaggerated a lot and made worse, but yeah, when you come in from a qualifying session, you look at all the corners and go, ‘I’m on par with my teammate and yet I’m two tenths behind at the end of it.’ It’s not a very nice feeling.”

The 2026 power units run software capable of adjusting energy deployment in real time, learning from data gathered on previous laps of a circuit. A shift in wind direction or a handful of other variables outside a driver’s control can leave two near identical cars with noticeably different power outputs from one lap to the next.

Charles Leclerc, who finished second at Spa, described wrestling with the same unpredictability through practice and qualifying. “These power units are so complex that there are some days when you scratch your head trying to understand why you are losing so much on the straights. That was a bit the case for me on Friday and in FP3.

“Then, in qualifying, things went well again by slightly fine-tuning things. It’s just very difficult, but also very frustrating sometimes for a driver because, even when you are doing your best, there are things in the background that change constantly, and that’s not so nice.”

Above paras courtesy Jarrod Partridge, F1chronicle.com, 23rd July 26.

[Jericoke]

I'm of two minds on this.

On one thought, F1 has always been about building the most competitive car.  Having crap AI is no different from having crap suspension or brakes.  It's more complicated than previous cars, sure, but AI power deployment does make sense for real world applications, and the 'real world application' F1 sometimes likes to tout.

On the other side, we like the drivers to control the car, not the pits, not the computer aids, but the drivers.  Let them control everything the AI is supposed to do, and get it out of there.

[lkjohnson1950]

My personal opinion is that so far AI has been bad for everyone and everything more often than good. If it has reached the point where it's developers cannot control it, we need to shut it down now.

[Jericoke]

My personal opinion is that so far AI has been bad for everyone and everything more often than good. If it has reached the point where it's developers cannot control it, we need to shut it down now.

The point of AI is for it to do things that people aren't going to do.

I don't think that it's generally worth the energy spent on it, but the 'control' issue is kind of the point.

[lkjohnson1950]

If it jumps whatever barrier they used to contain it, accesses the internet without human permission, picks a website according to it's own criteria, and hacks it because it can, it's too dangerous to exist.

[John S]

If it jumps whatever barrier they used to contain it, accesses the internet without human permission, picks a website according to it's own criteria, and hacks it because it can, it's too dangerous to exist.

Lonny whilst I fully agree, the proverbial Pandora's Box may have already been prised open.         

How to put anything back in, or even to contain what's been released, is perhaps a puzzle no one is qualified to tackle. - I sure hope not.

[lkjohnson1950]

I agree John. Tech Bros won't give up their new toy without a major fight.   

[Alianora La Canta]

I'm not impressed. The AI impedes good driving (especially if it is the sort of improvisational driving that looks for additional opportunities) and rewards copying whatever it happened to offer as its assumption of the best way to drive. To me, that's the opposite of what racing technology should do. It makes me feel like I could race a F1 car competitively, and given I'm sitting here having had a major operation recently, that really shouldn't happen!

[lkjohnson1950]

Last weekend at Zandvoort, Max said that the newfound competitiveness of the subs driving for Red Bull due to Hadjar's withdrawal proves that these cars are easier to drive because so much is done by the AI. It blunts the edge of a top driver's talent. They are prevented from doing some of the things that separate the good from the great.

[Andy B]

Guy Martin stopped racing for BMW as the bike stopped him from riding the way he wanted to and BMW said they cannot turn it off as an example when the front wheel came off the floor under acceleration he would use the rear brake to bring it down but the bikes AI shut the throttle back and he was slower because of it.
I want drivers/riders to be in control not technology altering the racing.

[Jericoke]

Guy Martin stopped racing for BMW as the bike stopped him from riding the way he wanted to and BMW said they cannot turn it off as an example when the front wheel came off the floor under acceleration he would use the rear brake to bring it down but the bikes AI shut the throttle back and he was slower because of it.
I want drivers/riders to be in control not technology altering the racing.

Technological and strategic advances have always affected the way drivers race their cars.  Moving the engine back, adding aerodynamics, sequential transmissions, turbo chargers, refueling, multiple tire compounds.  Some drivers adapted, some didn't.  Some engineers got it right, some didn't.

I agree that AI making 'driving decisions' isn't great, but I look at it like some engineers have gotten the AI wrong, that there is room to fix it, for it to work with the drivers.  I wonder if someone is going to figure out that programming the car to match the driver,instead of forcing the driver to match the programming.  Schumacher and Vettel always had a close relationship with their engineers, I wonder if they could have adapted the AI better.

[Andy B]

Guy Martin stopped racing for BMW as the bike stopped him from riding the way he wanted to and BMW said they cannot turn it off as an example when the front wheel came off the floor under acceleration he would use the rear brake to bring it down but the bikes AI shut the throttle back and he was slower because of it.
I want drivers/riders to be in control not technology altering the racing.

Technological and strategic advances have always affected the way drivers race their cars.  Moving the engine back, adding aerodynamics, sequential transmissions, turbo chargers, refueling, multiple tire compounds.  Some drivers adapted, some didn't.  Some engineers got it right, some didn't.

I agree that AI making 'driving decisions' isn't great, but I look at it like some engineers have gotten the AI wrong, that there is room to fix it, for it to work with the drivers.  I wonder if someone is going to figure out that programming the car to match the driver,instead of forcing the driver to match the programming.  Schumacher and Vettel always had a close relationship with their engineers, I wonder if they could have adapted the AI better.

I totally disagree!
All the changes you state did not take control the car/bike whereas AI is doing just that and is wrong its overriding the driver/rider and that cannot be right and why a lot of tech was banned as F1 cars were able to drive themselves.

[lkjohnson1950]

Totally agree Andy. Anything that takes control away from the driver/rider might and I say only might be a good thing in a street application for ordinary drivers, but not in racing.

[Dare]

Totally agree Andy. Anything that takes control away from the driver/rider might and I say only might be a good thing in a street application for ordinary drivers, but not in racing.

What next the Kentucky Derby with AI

[John S]

Totally agree Andy. Anything that takes control away from the driver/rider might and I say only might be a good thing in a street application for ordinary drivers, but not in racing.

What next the Kentucky Derby with AI

Are you worried it'll look summat like this Dare?