How F1 drivers have lost their power - The Undercut with Damon Hill and Mark Hughes
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the latest episode of The Undercut, 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill and renowned F1 writer Mark Hughes discuss the topic of driver power. Many drivers on this year's grid have been notable critics of the 2026 regulations - including four-time champion Max Verstappen. So why didn't the drivers' initial skepticism over the regulations carry any weight and should they make a collective play for more power over future regulations? Those are two of the questions tackled in this wide-ranging chat.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | You're listening to The Undercutt with Damon Hill and Mark Hughes |
| 0:15.4 | So on Eve the Miami Grand Prix, |
| 0:24.5 | we're going to see the effect of these tweaking of the regulations, |
| 0:29.1 | which I've needed a tweak after just three races. |
| 0:34.3 | They're a bit of a porridge. |
| 0:35.5 | There's all sorts of unsatisfactory aspects to them. |
| 0:41.0 | And one of the things that strikes me is that from a long way out, maybe a year and a half, |
| 0:50.2 | two years out, the drivers who are trying them in the Sims were all saying, this is not going to |
| 0:57.0 | work. It's going to be horrible. This is going to be massive speed differences, off battery to one battery. |
| 1:03.0 | There's going to, you're going to have to drive very, very conservatively to get the ultimate |
| 1:06.9 | qualifying lap. It's not going to be a driving on the limit contest. The overtakes |
| 1:11.2 | are going to be meaningless. These all came to be. And yet at the time the drivers were more or less |
| 1:16.9 | told, yeah, don't worry by the engineers, we've got this. This is just very early stages. Just stay |
| 1:23.0 | in your lane. Don't make a fuss. So it sort of speaks to how the drivers, although they're an |
| 1:32.9 | essential part of the show and what they're doing is at the core of why we're all fascinated |
| 1:39.9 | by it, but they're not really given any real power. |
| 1:45.1 | How does that strike you? |
| 1:46.6 | Is that changed over time? |
| 1:48.2 | And how was it when you were there compared to your dad's era and compared to now? |
| 1:53.5 | Because you're sort of in the middle of those points in time. |
| 1:58.5 | I think that one of the things that struck me immediately when Liberty moved in, and it |
... |
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