McLaren's technical chief Neil Houldey is pushing back on driver complaints about the 2026 power units. While Piastri called the machine-learning algorithms controlling deployment "a pretty crap way of going racing" in Spa, Houldey insists the best drivers still rise to the top. The new regs force a near-50/50 split between electric and combustion power, and because the battery recharges lap-by-lap, software must taper deployment to avoid sudden mid-corner drop-offs. That shifts the skill set: throttle discipline now trumps raw aggression. One messy corner scrubs speed, costs electrical power, and punishes you three turns later. A Miami rule tweak dialed back the worst yo-yo racing, but the core trade-off remains. Houldey calls it "more of a thinking game." The 2026 championship may belong to whoever solves the algorithmic puzzle fastest, not whoever carries the most speed into Turn 1.
Read the full story at Motorsport.comWHY MCLAREN FEELS THE BEST DRIVERS CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE UNDER F1 2026 RULES
McLaren's technical chief Neil Houldey is pushing back on driver complaints about the 2026 power units. While Piastri called the machine-learning algorithms controlling deployment "a pretty crap way of going racing" in Spa, Houldey insists the best drivers still rise to the top. The new regs force a near-50/50 split between electric and combustion power, and because the battery recharges lap-by-lap, software must taper deployment to avoid sudden mid-corner drop-offs. That shifts the skill set: throttle discipline now trumps raw aggression. One messy corner scrubs speed, costs electrical power, and punishes you three turns later. A Miami rule tweak dialed back the worst yo-yo racing, but the core trade-off remains. Houldey calls it "more of a thinking game." The 2026 championship may belong to whoever solves the algorithmic puzzle fastest, not whoever carries the most speed into Turn 1.
