FIA's Single-Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis has described a raft of tweaks to the Formula 1 technical regulations as a “refinement” rather than an overhaul ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.

The on-track product of the new for 2026 regulations has been met with a largely negative reaction, with fans and drivers alike describing the increased overtaking as “artificial”.

Further to this, safety concerns that high closing speeds would cause a significant accident had been raised before this came to pass with Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto tangling in Japan.

“These 2026 regulations, as we’ve said a few times, are one of the biggest changes we’ve had probably in the history of Formula 1,” said Tombazis.

“They were quite important to maintain the relevance, the technological developments, with the increased electrification and so on. We knew always that they presented certain challenges, and we always said we were going to review them after the first few races.

“The first few races have gone quite well in many ways. It has been exciting with lots of close racing and overtaking, but there certainly have been areas where we needed to intervene. So the approach we took here was one of evolution and refinement, not revolution. We don’t think there was any need for revolution.”

The changes included a reduction in the level of harvesting on a qualifying lap in order to allow a driver to push flat out for longer and reduce ‘superclipping’, increased deployment limitations in races, and improved safety protocols for starts and wet weather racing. Full details can be found here.

Despite these changes being brought in, the FIA is open to further tweaks as the teams uncover further issues, something that Tombazis points out is a normal process in the championship. 

“Clearly, when the regulations are new, like we have in 2026, that is a slightly more intense process of discussion than maybe when the regulations have had a few years of maturity," he explained.

F1 drivers "united" in rules feedback

The changes came after a meeting of the F1 Commission, where key issues raised from the opening three rounds were discussed.

Although drivers are not a part of this, Tombazis confirmed that concerns raised had been listened to and were central to the decisions taken.

“There is a governance that underpins the Formula 1 regulations, which means that while the FIA lead the process and guide and carry out the work, we do need to have a level of consensus achieved with the various stakeholders – mainly the teams and the power unit manufacturers – and that is the work we have been carry out recently,” he added.

“But we have also been discussing the matters with the drivers, because ultimately they are sitting in the car, they experience things first-hand, and it is invaluable to get their input. All of that led to the meeting that we had when these regulations were achieved by voting.

“The position of the drivers was quite uniform among them. They were all pushing for some changes in qualifying in order to enjoy the driving more, to push more, but they were also pushing for us to address certain safety concerns they had, so they were quite united, and their input in this was very important.”