‘Come and speak to us’: Hamilton calls for more driver involvement in F1 rules
Lewis Hamilton believes Formula One drivers should have a “seat at the table” in discussion on directions the sport should take in future, to have an input alongside key stakeholders such as the teams and the FIA,Hamilton’s view was largely echoed across the paddock including by the current world champion, Lando Norris,Hamilton was speaking before this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix where the rule changes implemented after driver dissatisfaction with this year’s new regulations are taking effect for the first time,“All the drivers we do work together, we all meet but the fact is we don’t have a seat at the table,” Hamilton said,“We do engage with the FIA and F1; F1’s more often a little bit more responsive.
But being that we’re not stakeholders, we don’t have a seat at the table currently, which I think needs to change,”The seven-time champion went on to cite the example of when new types of tyres are tested before being brought into the sport,“I say to them, when I was doing the Pirelli test: ‘You guys should come and speak to us and collaborate with us, we don’t want to be slagging off the Pirelli tyres, we know you can build a good product,’” he added,“But their feedback will be coming from people who have never driven a car before,Speak to us, we’ll work hand in hand, we can work together to approach the FIA so we can get a better product.
The same with F1.We’re here to work with you.We don’t want to be slating our sport.We want the sport to succeed and so we need to be working together.“But it’s like a [broken] record, you keep doing it and it’s like small baby steps each time.
But I have no doubt [we are aligned].”Since the start of the season there has been widespread criticism of the new regulations from drivers, who have been vocal in their discontent at the role energy management now plays in the sport with an almost 50-50 split between power from the combustion engine and electrical energy.The deployment and recharging of the latter has come to dominate how drivers approach a lap and has led to considerable unhappiness, not least from Max Verstappen who has said he is considering his future in the sport, such is his disenchantment with the impact of the rules.“I hope for more and more [driver input],” said Verstappen.“I think if we would have had that five, maybe even before, like five, six years ago, we probably wouldn’t have been in the state that we are in now.
”The rule adjustments now employed focus on the parameters of the energy recovery management during qualifying and racing and there was guarded optimism in the paddock that they will prove to be effective, but there remains a strong feeling that greater driver input during the formation of new regulations would have potentially headed off the problems this season.“It’s completely correct, it’s something that we want, it’s what they have in a lot of other sports,” Norris said of Hamilton’s position.“Having a seat at the table is something we’ve spoken about as the GPDA [Grand Prix Drivers’ Association].We’re all very aligned with that.“Sometimes I think we have to accept as drivers we’re very blindsided.
Maybe the externals from a business side of things, teams, how teams work, how all of that’s organised,We have to accept that we’re maybe not always completely correct,But the majority of things that we think of us as drivers and what we want for the sport is a win-win,It’s better for us and it’s better for the fans,”Before the drivers had a chance to put the new rules to the test in what will be an extended first practice session on Friday, there was further damning criticism of this year’s formula from Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
“I think it’s fundamentally just so flawed.I’m not an engineer, but maybe there’s a lot of things that can be done.I don’t have all the answers.It’s sad that we’re in this situation,” he said.The Canadian was also unequivocal when asked why he thought F1 felt the rules were working out well.
“F1 is a business and they want to protect their business, we’re drivers and we know how it feels like to drive a good car, so there’s two different perspectives on it,” he added.“People are watching the sport no matter what, so F1 is happy.But for the drivers, the fans, the people that really know about racing, know what it was like before, the drivers that know what it’s like to drive really good, proper cars.There’s no hiding behind the fact that right now it’s not as good as it could be, it’s far from good as it could be.”
AI outperforms doctors in Harvard trial of emergency triage diagnoses
From George Clooney in ER to Noah Wyle in The Pitt, emergency department doctors have long been popular heroes. But will it soon be time to hang up the scrubs?A groundbreaking Harvard study has found that AI systems outperformed human doctors in high-pressure emergency medicine triage, diagnosing more accurately in the potentially life and death moments when people are first rushed to hospital.The results were described by independent experts as showing “a genuine step forward” in the clinical reasoning of AIs and came as part of trials that tested the responses of hundreds of doctors against an AI.The authors said the results, published in the journal Science, showed large language models (LLMs) “have eclipsed most benchmarks of clinical reasoning”.One experiment focused on 76 patients who arrived at the emergency room of a Boston hospital
Calls grow to ban Palantir in Australia after manifesto described by UK MP as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’
Just weeks after it implied some cultures are inferior to others in a manifesto described by one UK MP as the “ramblings of a supervillain”, the US spy tech company Palantir says it is just “a software company” amid calls for Australian government agencies to ban any new contracts with the controversial company.In Australia, state and federal contracts with Palantir have reached nearly $80m, and federal investment in the company is reportedly more than $160m.Palantir, a Trump-aligned company that was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, develops software for companies and government agencies to analyse vast amounts of data.Earlier this month, Palantir published a manifesto on X, arguing the benefits of American power and implying some cultures are inferior to others.“Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive,” Palantir wrote in the post
Galaxy S26 review: Samsung’s still-compact flagship Android
Samsung’s compact flagship phone hasn’t changed much in a year, but the S26 is still one of the best smaller handsets available as rivals grow larger and larger.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The S26 is the cheapest and smallest of this year’s top Samsungs, dwarfed by the top-of-the-line S26 Ultra in size and price
‘Your questions are designed to trick me’: combative Musk grilled over battle with Sam Altman
After a dramatic first day of opening statements and testimony from Elon Musk in his case against Sam Altman and OpenAI, the trial continued on Wednesday with a cross-examination of the Tesla CEO. Musk began his second day of on the stand by repeating the accusation that Altman “stole a charity” and would endanger humanity with AI multiple times. OpenAI’s attorneys pressed the world’s richest man on his allegations, resulting in testy exchanges and multiple interventions from the judge.Musk often refused to answer questions as instructed, and the judge interjected several times to tell Musk to simply give a yes-or-no response. At various points, Musk told OpenAI’s counsel, “You’re being misleading with your question,” and “Your questions are not simple, they are designed to trick me, essentially
Maryland becomes first state to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores
Maryland has become the first state in the US to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores.Maryland’s law bans grocers and third-party delivery services from using a person’s personal data to set higher prices. Wes Moore, the governor, signed the measure into law on Tuesday. “At a time when technology can predict what we need, when we need it, when we’ll pay for it and also – when we’ll pay more for it, and at a time when we’re watching how big companies are then using these analytics against us to make record profits, Maryland is not just pushing back. Maryland is pushing forward because we are going to protect our people,” Moore said at the bill signing ceremony
Tech giants’ results show rosy outlook for AI boom and US stock market
Unusual simultaneous reports of financial results by several of the US’s largest tech companies gave positive indications for the stock market despite widespread fears of an AI bubble on Wednesday.Four of the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks, the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world, reported their quarterly financial results on Wednesday. The cluster is not typical, as these disclosures do not often occur on the same day, and provides a snapshot of how the tech industry is faring as it rides the AI boom. Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft all revealed double-digit gains in their cloud computing units, which have seen supercharged growth thanks to increasing adoption of AI. Meta, not in the business of cloud computing, failed to meet Wall Street expectations
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