Formula 1 just handed Suzuka a small technical tweak and Oliver Bearman did not hide his opinion. The FIA has cut the qualifying recharge allowance from 9.0 megajoules to 8.0 megajoules for the Japanese Grand Prix, aiming to ease extreme lift-and-coast and super-clipping issues at the power-hungry Suzuka circuit.
Bearman says it will make qualifying slower
Bearman, the 20-year-old Haas driver, says the rule change might help in one sense but will slow cars in qualifying overall. He pointed out that while drivers may not need to lift and coast as much, they still have to recharge more often, and the net effect is less usable energy than teams had modelled in simulations.
His view in short: the new limit removes one tactic but creates another problem. He thinks there are better alternatives to achieve the same safety and energy goals without making qualifying lap times drop.
Ask for more harvesting, not less energy
Bearman suggested expanding the allowed harvesting on full throttle instead of cutting the recharge number. Right now, the software limits how much energy can be harvested during certain moments, with the super-clip parameter set lower than lift-and-coast. He said allowing harvest at negative 350 kilowatts while on full throttle would help drivers manage energy without having to drive oddly conservative laps.
He acknowledged the FIA trialled different settings during testing, and called the current tweak "a solution, I guess," but still prefers more flexibility on how energy is harvested in qualifying.
China highlighted the problem
Qualifying has been behaving strangely under the hybrid and software rules. Bearman described a session in Shanghai where doing every corner as fast as possible actually made his lap slower. Picking up throttle earlier and pushing more confused the power unit controls and cost him about two tenths on the lap.
He explained that sometimes a small change in throttle, even around three percent, can upset the software and ruin a lap. That makes the usual qualifying approach of pushing harder on each run counterproductive. Drivers find themselves better off doing consistent 99 percent laps rather than going flat-out on the final attempt, which goes against how racers normally think.
Software, not just hardware, is the issue
Because current power units rely heavily on software to manage harvesting and deployment, unexpected driver inputs can confuse the system. This was part of the debate after Charles Leclerc experienced issues in Shanghai while using a similar Ferrari power unit to Bearman's VF-26. Bearman said it is not a universal problem at every track, but most circuits have one or two corners where the software can be tripped up.
He does not claim to be an engineer, but he asked for better use of the tools teams already have and for a little more software flexibility. He repeated his preference for allowing stronger harvesting on full throttle as a practical first step.
Bearman also noted the FIA has been responsive so far. He expects continued dialogue between drivers, teams, and the regulator to refine the rules rather than keep applying quick fixes that change how drivers have to approach qualifying.
Short version: FIA lowered the qualifying recharge from 9.0MJ to 8.0MJ for Suzuka. Bearman says that will slow qualifying, wants more harvesting freedom, and urges smarter software tweaks so drivers can actually push when they need to.
