"The political landscape has changed," says the FIA's single-seaters director.

F1's powers that be have made no secret of their joy in terms of the fact that the 2026 regulations not only encouraged Audi and GM to enter the sport, but Ford to return and Honda to do a U-turn.

However, the controversy surrounding the opening three races, other than questioning whether the sport was right to increase the contribution from the electric side of the engine, is whether it was right to pander to the manufacturers to the extent F1 has. Before the new rules have been tried out, some are claiming that Mercedes - as a manufacturer - has too much influence.

There is already talk that the next overhaul of the engine regulations, due in 2031, could see a revision to the reliance on the electric side of the engines, while, courtesy of sustainable fuels, there has been talk of a return to V8s, possibly even V10s.

However, other than the ongoing controversy, the fact is that the landscape has changed, and manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their hybrid road cars.

"The political landscape has changed," said Tombazis on Monday. "Back when we discussed the current regulations, the automotive companies, who were very involved, told us that they're never going to make another internal combustion engine again, a new one. They were going to phase out, and by whatever year, they were going to be fully electrical, for example. Obviously, this hasn't happened.

"That's not to underestimate the importance of electrification globally," he added, "but it didn't happen as much. Secondly, I think one of the not frequently discussed stories, because it's not something visible, is that, of course, we did go for fully sustainable fuels, and I think, a reasonably good outcome.

"In terms of where we want to be in the future, we do need to protect the sport from the world macro-economic situation," he continued. "Meaning, we cannot be hostage to automotive companies deciding to be part of our sport or not.

"We want them to be part of our sport, absolutely," he insisted. "That's why we've worked so hard to secure new ones to participate. But we can also not be in a position where, if they decide they don't want to be, we're suddenly left vulnerable."

Referring to the "refinements" announced last week, he said: "It was quite clear we needed to take certain steps. It was quite clear that people also need to come off the comfort zone for some of these discussions. By and large, I would say people were quite constructive and I think what was reached was a genuine level of consensus.

"Obviously, any meetings with teams or PU manufacturers is always quite a complicated affair because people naturally mix their views on what's best for the sport as well as their view about what's best for their team's performance," he admitted.

Yet to finalise how the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system will work, another obvious bone of contention for the manufacturers, he said: "We offered whether we wanted to consider certain things like the turbo pressures, or the turbo diameters, or the operating of the plenum temperature, for example, and such like. The universal position by the PU manufacturers back then was that we should keep it simple.

"Please don't forget that ADUO is not like, as some people may say, a balance of performance," he added. "We are looking at just a bit more opportunity to develop your engine in terms of cash, but you still need to make the best engine in order to win.

"If we are to change anything for the next cycle, we need to start discussing it very soon," he warned. "Because the time it takes to make a power unit and an engine and all that is quite long."

Finally, ever since the introduction of the hybrid era, another downer, for fans, has been the sound of F1.

"To be honest, it's always easy, if possible, to reduce noise if you have too much," he said. "The opposite is more of a tricky one, to increase if you have too little. So I think that when we have previous cars running occasionally in grand prix on Sunday morning, early or whatever they do, provoke a certain level of feeling amongst a lot of people, and I don't think that will be a problem."

Following Stefano Domenicali's recent comments, one gets the feeling that F1 and the FIA could be on a collision course again.