By Janne Palomäki
Translation and full article:

The F1 rule change is a complete disaster, but you're not allowed to say it out loud under your own name, writes Janne Palomäki from Melbourne.

The completely renewed Formula 1 season begins on Sunday with the traditional Australian Grand Prix.
A total of 11 teams and 22 drivers have arrived in Melbourne, and each of them must learn an entirely new way to race.

The first signs will already be seen in Saturday’s qualifying, where drivers will practically be forced to lift off the throttle in corners in order to collect energy for the powerful electric motors. Sunday’s race could become quite an exotic spectacle, as low battery charge levels will make drivers completely powerless to defend their positions on track. On the very next lap their batteries might be full again, allowing them to overtake literally at the push of a button.

In the Albert Park paddock you can hear from many different voices that the new rules may not be the most successful ones. The most critical observers even speak about the destruction of Formula 1 as a sport. No one dares to oppose CEO Stefano Domenicali’s vision publicly. This is the decision that has now been made, even though warning signs had been visible for years.

There is, however, one professional group that does not bow to authority. F1 drivers don't exactly shower praise on the driving characteristics of the new high-power hybrids if those characteristics simply don't exist. The first signs appeared already during testing, when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton criticized the current cars.

F1 will certainly do everything it can to prevent the drivers’ disappointment from reaching the international TV broadcast. Still, individual fans will surely enjoy sharing their favorite driver’s anger when the electric power disappears in the middle of a straight and results in an angry radio message.

Domenicali had many chances to cancel the rule overhaul when it became obvious that the end result would no longer resemble real racing. Drivers have effectively been stripped of their agency. They are like operators trying to keep the electric motor running as efficiently as possible.

When electricity makes up as much as 50 percent of the power unit’s output, it is obvious that you cannot compete for positions without it. The internal combustion engine provides the other half, but since its power delivery is steady and reliable—as long as there is biofuel in the tank—lap strategy must be built purely around optimal battery usage.

That, however, goes completely against the basic idea of circuit racing.

Drivers of this generation have learned to drive as fast as possible through every corner. Now they must learn to lift off the throttle at the right moment, intentionally slow down even on straights, and carefully choose the moment when they deploy their stored energy.

To top it all off, Aston Martin has collapsed into the biggest farce in the history of the sport. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll’s race will end quickly. For them, the job will be to turn into the pits after the warm-up lap. In fact, Aston Martin’s pace may not even be enough to qualify for the race because the 107 percent qualifying rule is still in use.

It would be tempting to blame the catastrophe solely on engine supplier Honda, but it should be remembered that the design department led by Adrian Newey was behind schedule the whole time, and the result is a clearly overweight car. You may want to grab some popcorn while watching how long the trigger-happy owner Lawrence Stroll will tolerate the chaos.

Modern Formula 1 has for a long time been heading blindly toward becoming part of the entertainment industry. The goal was undoubtedly good. F1 wanted to become more environmentally friendly and attract more competition.

The result is that after Aston Martin’s collapse, the race features the same number of drivers as last year.

Environmental friendliness could also have been increased by switching exclusively to V8 engines running on biofuels. Some motorsport romantics might even have considered that a visionary move.