While the first race of the 2026 Formula 1 season was certainly exciting, it didn't take long for fans to realise that the overtakes on track—courtesy of sweeping regulation changes—are largely artificial, with cars yo-yoing as they repeatedly trade places.
After Australia, the problems with the new regulations became even more obvious in China and Japan. The latter race revealed major safety concerns, while the complaints from drivers have become increasingly vocal (four-time World Champion Max Verstappen has made it clear he intends to retire from the sport if things don't change in 2027).
The official F1 social media accounts have started hiding replies from unhappy fans, while we've seen multiple claims of a significant drop in viewership in countries across the world.
Unfortunately, it seems F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali's response to all this is to put his fingers in his ears and pretend it's not happening. When The Race put the issues to him, the Italian claimed the sport has absolutely no problems whatsoever.
"I think this is not a problem of resolving the problem of Formula 1. Formula 1 has not any problems, Formula 1 is in great shape, just to make sure that is clear to everyone," he stated. "And the vast majority of fans have been, since the beginning, very positive [about] what they see in terms of race action."
"You are the experts on this matter. But we are getting sometimes too philosophical or too technical in things that the vast majority of people do not perceive," Domenicali continued. "So I do believe that this focus will stay in the right forum, because it's the nature of F1 to discuss and be able to improve. But it shouldn't be at the centre of the focus for the vast majority of fans."
"It is the nature of someone who wants to protect the business to react if they see that there are things that need to be taken in a different direction. The approach will not change, but I think that the focus should now be really on what has to be done. If you're asking me also, if this will be enough to answer other questions that were posed before. Maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know."
Asked how he knows fans are happy with the regulation changes, he replied, "It's very simple. You check it. Sold out every race. First things that everyone with their eyes can see. It is amazing."
When the interviewer countered by pointing out that those tickets were sold before this year, he replied, "No, no, no. Even now, so far is all good. So I don't see this negativity. We have data that our people can give you in terms of real numbers. It is all positive."
“You are getting too [into the] engineer [mindset], and that's why sometimes we miss the spot of: people want to have action, want to see things that are creating the right place to fight for something," Domenicali added. "So personally, if there is something that I would say, ‘it is negative’. I would say I have no problem to say that. We're always listening."
Is he listening to the drivers then? "There's been too much focus on comments on certain drivers that have been taking a lot of discussion of the hardcore fans in that direction," the F1 CEO said. "That is something that is a lesson learned. These kinds of things should have been handled in a different way. That's for sure."
So, despite having current and former World Champions criticising the new regulations, vocal complaints from fans, and a single dominant team that has, so far, won every single race (an issue these more competitive regulations were supposed to change), there's nothing to see here, according to Domenicali.