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.