The potential impact of Formula 1’s tweak to its controversial 2026 regulations has been outlined by Mercedes simulator driver Anthony Davidson.

Following a crunch meeting on Monday, F1 and governing body the FIA revealed a package of tweaks aimed at improving the much-maligned 2026 rules while addressing driver concerns about safety.

The amount of energy management required with the new power units, which have a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, has been reduced in a bid to allow drivers to push closer to flat-out on qualifying laps.

Similar limits have been changed for races to reduce drastic closing speed differences following safety concerns that were raised after Ollie Bearman’s scary 50G crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Davidson, who has spent many hours testing the regulations on the Mercedes simulator at its Brackley factory, has outlined what he expects from the revised rules.

“I think overall the ruleset was fairly ambitious. Some would argue overly ambitious, with the whole 50-50 split ICE versus the battery power,” Davidson said on the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast.

“So you are now doing laps where you don’t really have enough battery to fill in the internal combustion engine that’s fairly low on power to power an F1 car around a track with all that drag that they carry with the wings.

“They’ve had to not do anything too drastic because otherwise the cars basically become too slow, so we’re in this kind of middle-ground now, limiting the amount going from 8MJ to 7MJ, should allow the drivers to drive more flat-out, but because the internal combustion engine is quite underpowered, naturally with the new rules, it means the lap times will be slower.

“So it’s a bit counter-intuitive. Slower lap times but the drivers can be more flat-out. If you think an F3 car, or an F2 car, they are slower lap times, but the drivers are full-throttle all the time. It’s that kind of thing that we’re getting closer to now.

“They’ve consulted the drivers and I’m really happy that they’ve spoken to the drivers on this one, because they are the ones in the car feeling it at the end of the day, as I was all the way through the winter on the simulator.

“A lot of these things I had actually flagged up early last year. Things like the 350kW super clip, for example. Now they are allowed maximum super clipping, which means that it reduces the period when you are actually super clipping.

“So instead of this long, painful decrease in revs that we’ve all become accustomed to after the first three races, it will now be going along and then more of a dip down but in a much shorter period. That will dissuade drivers and teams from doing lift-off.

“I believe they’ve come up with a better solution. This is where I feel we should have been right from the word go.”

Davidson hopes the changes for the races will still allow for the kind of fluid racing that has occurred during the opening three races of the season.

“I just hope it will still allow overtaking to happen. That, for me, the jury’s still out on that one, but hopefully it will,” he added.