F1 in Belgium: Machine learning algorithms are ruining the sport
Ars Technica · LC · trust 45/100
I tried to be positive F1 in Belgium: Machine learning algorithms are ruining the sport Many will say Spa is the best racetrack on earth, but not for these F1 cars.
96 Kimi Antonelli approaches the famous Eau Rouge corner. Credit: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images Kimi Antonelli approaches the famous Eau Rouge corner. Credit: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Formula 1 returned to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgium Grand Prix this weekend. This ribbon of tarmac in the Ardennes is one of the sport’s historic venues, featuring in the first F1 season way back in 1950. But as yesterday’s race showed, the current F1 machinery is utterly ill-suited to this dramatic venue.
As we saw at Suzuka in Japan earlier this year, a 2026 F1 battery is able to power the race car’s electric motor for only a few seconds a lap; for much of the rest of the lap, the energy-starved cars have less power going to their rear wheels than in the junior F2 feeder series.
For many, including much of the current F1 grid, Spa is considered perhaps the planet’s greatest race track. In fact, both Spa and the Belgian Grand Prix predate the F1 world championship, with its first race held in 1922. Back then, the circuit was a 9-mile loop of public roads, taking in the towns of Malmedy and Stavelot before returning to Francorchamps. In the postwar years, the layout shrank slightly to 8.7 miles (14.1 km) and was ferociously fast, with average lap speeds of up to 150 mph (240 km/h)—and ferociously dangerous, given cars with huge amounts of power and minimal concessions to safety.
The Spa we know and love today was reconfigured in 1979, cutting out about half of the original layout, though at 4.3 miles (6.9 km), it’s still the longest track on the F1 calendar. Interestingly, some of the circuit remained as public roads until 2000, when it became a dedicated race track only. Eau Rouge and Raidillon are its two most famous corners—a quick left, then right, that climbs 77 feet (24 m) of steep hill. But in the era of high downforce race cars, other corners like Pouhon have become greater tests of skill.
Not this year. As I’ve detailed more than a few times now, the current breed of F1 car is not at all suited to tracks with high-speed corners. Because the hybrid side of the new power units provides such little energy, going flat out all the time is not the fastest way to complete a lap. Corners that once required a driver’s commitment and maybe a little bravery to drive at the limit are now coasted into to allow the engine to divert some of its power to recharge the battery. Obviously, the drivers aren’t thrilled.
“For most of sector two, you run just on the engine,” said Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. “So what is that? 450 bhp, 500 bhp? Something like that, which is, I guess, more or less what a Formula 3 car has but with F1 downforce. So you can imagine, of course, that that is not very exciting to drive.”
“But honestly, I don’t want to sit here and complain again because probably someone will shoot me outside the door,” he joked.
Rumors continue to swirl about Verstappen’s future. As he is not in the top two of the driver’s championship, he could potentially activate an escape clause in his Red Bull contract, and some think a move to McLaren could be possible. A complete F1 sabbatical is another alternative, as Verstappen has made no secret of his desire to win some of the world’s other great races outside of F1, like the 24-hour endurance races at Le Mans, the Nürburgring, and, yes, Spa.
While I’d love to see Verstappen in more GT3 and possibly prototypes, I’m guessing he’ll stay in F1, and with Red Bull. “I’m mentally just adjusting to it. I’m trying to make the best out of it,” he told the media after qualifying. “Even though, of course, it’s not what I like, not what I love to do in Formula 1. But I can also sit at home and drive nothing. But that also doesn’t do anything. So I’m just trying my best.”
That qualifying session went rather well for the Dutch driver, too. His teammate, saddled with a grid penalty for changing an engine, helped punch a hole through the air for Verstappen, giving him a tow through the final sector of the track, letting Verstappen claim second on the grid. On pole? Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yet again, with a margin of three tenths of a second to the Red Bull.
Things did not go nearly as well for Antonelli’s teammate, George Russell. Declared this year’s champion-in-waiting before the start of the season, the British driver has been comprehensively outdriven by his teenage teammate this year. But Antonelli’s ease with the new cars and Russell’s discomfort with having to adopt a radically new driving style can’t explain the half-second gap between the pair in qualifying.
Over the weekend, the blame seemed to shift from Russell’s car to the driver, then back to the car again. There was—and is—something definitely wrong with Russell’s car, which was clearly slower than its sister car on several flat-out sections.
The self-learning AI systems that teams are now using to manage their energy deployment strategies across a lap are looking increasingly likely to blame. By their nature, they’re fairly opaque to the driver. And because the electrical energy is so limited—just 4 MJ capacity in the battery—even tiny deployments to fill in extra torque to help the V6 or from getting a bit of wheelspin is enough to throw off the energy management and leave a driver with a fraction of the power they thought they should have.
“My whole focus for the last 36 hours has been on straight-line speed. It hasn’t been focused on the set-up, tires, or anything, because we’re all trying to solve what is going on,” Russell told the media after qualifying.
Even Russell said after the race that Hamilton was blameless and shouldn’t have been penalized.…
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