FIA 'ban Mercedes and Red Bull F1 qualifying trick'

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FIA 'ban Mercedes and Red Bull F1 qualifying trick'

Not that it helped Red Bull much...

Chris Deeley

Tuesday 14 April 2026 20:29

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At some point this year, presumably, two F1 races in a row will be run with the exact same set of rules back to back. Not yet, though.

As F1 and the FIA play a frantic game of whack-a-mole to close loopholes and tweak potential safety issues created by the new 2026 regulations, they've brought the hammer down on a little trick available to teams in qualifying.

Teams including Mercedes and Red Bull were able to run their battery energy at full power on the way to the finish line on their flying laps, instead of running a 'ramp down' rate where the power is reduced by 50kW a second to avoid sudden drop-off when the battery empties.

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However, it is technically possible not to ramp down within the rules – with the requirement lifted if the MGU-K is shut for technical reasons, e.g. for an emergency situation.

F1 2026 Regulations: What is Recharge mode

FIA close qualifying loophole

As such, teams are able to shut the MGU-K. To discourage this, it was mandated that if the MGU-K is shut down by a driver, they can't use it at all for the next 60 seconds.

That made sure that the system wasn't cheated off at any point during the race or for the majority of any qualifying lap – but didn't discourage teams from doing it for the run to the finish line at the end of a qualifying hot lap. After all, 60 seconds of low power on a cool-down lap doesn't matter.

There was, however, a minor issue in that there was a risk of cars running very slowly on their cool-down laps, to a dangerous degree, after using the trick. That happened to Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen in Japanese Grand Prix practice, and appears to have happened in Australia too.

The FIA confirmed to teams in Japan that the trick was within the rules (although Mercedes chose not to use it in qualifying due to Antonelli's issue and the relatively short run to the line), but Ferrari asked for further clarification due to the obvious safety issue inherent in the possibility of slow cars on track while others are running hot laps.

The Race report that teams have now been told that they can no longer use the trick to get some extra juice out of their batteries in qualifying, and can only shut down the MGU-K for legitimate emergencies.

That's right. Red Bull might be even slower in Miami.

F1 Red Bull Mercedes FIA