‘Get rid of the battery’: F1 under increasing pressure to make more changes to engine rules
Formula One is under increasing pressure to consider immediate changes and the long-term future of its new engines, with the world champion, Lando Norris, reiterating after the Miami Grand Prix that the only answer to address the sport-wide dissatisfaction was to “get rid of the battery”.At the race in Florida, which was won by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, with Norris second, F1 and the FIA had brought in fresh regulations to address unhappiness and safety concerns prompted by the pivotal role energy management plays under the new 2026 formula.There has been widespread criticism of the formula – which employs almost a 50-50 split between the internal combustion engine (ICE) and electrical energy.And while the adjustments to mitigate the issues which came in this weekend were considered successful, the long-term distaste remains, as Norris noted.“It’s a small step in the right direction but it’s not to the level that Formula One should still be at yet,” he said.
“If you go flat out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years you still just get penalised for it.You still can’t be flat out everywhere.You should never get penalised for that kind of thing and you still do.“Honestly, I don’t really think you can fix that.You just have to get rid of the battery.
So hopefully in a few years, that’s the case.”Norris’s opinions were echoed by his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, who pointedly noted that, for all the tweaks to the rules, it was the fundamental way the engines were designed to operate that was the problem.“The collaboration again from the FIA and F1 has been good, but there’s only so many things you can change with the hardware we have,” he said.“So some changes in the future are still needed for sure.How quickly we can do it is the big question.
”Piastri’s position is understood to be popularly supported within the sport where there is general agreement for reducing the role of the electrical energy and increasing that of the combustion engine.However even given what is considered to be a relatively straightforward hardware redesign that would increase the fuel flow to the engine, there would have to be agreement from the teams and engine manufacturers as soon as the Canadian Grand Prix in three weeks in order for it to be adopted for next season.Over the weekend in Miami the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, said he believed that F1 would in future drop the current V6 hybrid engines and return to using V8s with “minor electrification”.The V8s which were most recently used between 2006 and 2013 were light, relatively simple and very loud, and would run as the current engines do on fully sustainable fuel.“V8 is coming,” he said.
Ben Sulayem quoted a timetable of introducing it by 2030 or 2031 however the immediate focus remains on whether a short-term change to the engine regulations can be agreed.Mercedes, who have the best engine on the grid, considered the proposal worth considering, although the team principal, Toto Wolff, intimated it would not be in time for next year.“Can we tweak it and optimise it in the midterm? Absolutely,” he said.“We will never be against making the show even better.We could extract a bit more performance out of the ICE, great.
Give us enough lead time so we can actually do it.“From a Mercedes standpoint, we are open to new engine regulations.We love V8s.It has only great memories.It’s a pure Mercedes engine, it revs high.
How do we give it enough energy from the battery side to not lose connection to the real world? Because if we swing to 100% combustion, it might be looking a bit ridiculous in 2031 or 2030.”
Thousands of cancer patients in England to benefit from new immunotherapy jab
Thousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced.The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.This new form of immunotherapy will replace pembrolizumab, which is administered via an intravenous drip in a specialist clean room. Preparing and administering it can be time-consuming and expensive for NHS staff to maintain, taking about two hours per session for patient.Most of the 14,000 patients already taking pembrolizumab are expected to benefit from the new injectable version
One in three HR leaders face opposition to inclusion schemes, study finds
More than a third of HR decision-makers in the UK said they have faced pushback against equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives over the past year, according to new research.The new YouGov poll, carried out for the national employment charity Working Chance, surveyed 565 HR decision-makers and found that resistance towards EDI was on the rise.The findings raised concerns about the impact on people with convictions, who often rely on inclusive hiring practices to access work.Working Chance, which supports women with convictions into employment, warned that scaling back inclusive hiring risked entrenching social exclusion and undermining efforts to reduce reoffending.Evidence consistently shows that stable employment is one of the most effective ways of preventing people from returning to the criminal justice system, the charity said
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UN warns women in public life face increasingly sophisticated online violence
Women in public life are facing growing and increasingly sophisticated forms of online violence, the UN has said, warning that “AI-assisted ‘virtual rape’ is now at the fingertips of perpetrators”.Female rights campaigners, journalists and other public communicators face a deepening threat owing to a combination of artificial intelligence, anonymity and the absence of effective laws and accountability, a report published by UN Women found.Of more than 600 women in public life, 6% said they had been victims of deepfakes, while nearly a third said they had received unsolicited sexual advances online. About 12% said they had had images of themselves shared without their consent, including intimate or sexual content.“Artificial intelligence is making abuse easier and more damaging,” said Kalliopi Mingeirou, who leads UN Women’s efforts to end violence against women
Woman’s fight for sterilisation raises questions over access to procedure
A psychologist who was denied sterilisation on the NHS has successfully challenged the decision after taking her case to the health ombudsman, raising questions over how accessible the procedure should be.Leah Spasova spent years seeking an operation to prevent pregnancy by blocking the fallopian tubes. Many argue that barriers faced by women, from funding refusals to stricter eligibility criteria, amount to unequal treatment compared with men seeking vasectomies, and limit bodily autonomy.However, others say tighter controls reflect legitimate medical concerns, including the procedure’s relative risk, its permanence, and evidence that some patients later regret the decision.In 2024-25, 10,793 female sterilisations were carried out, down 22% on a decade ago, while there were 26,385 vasectomies, up 16% year on year
Solicitors report late flood of no-fault evictions before ban in England
Solicitors say they have been inundated with requests to serve last-minute section 21 no-fault eviction notices before they are banned when the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force in England on Friday.The legislation, which has been hailed as the biggest change to renting in a generation, bans no-fault evictions, limits rent increases and abolishes fixed-term tenancies.On the eve of the new rules, solicitors said they were working long hours to keep up with the sudden demand for eviction notices, while Citizens Advice said thousands of people facing a no-fault eviction had approached it for help in the last month.In March, the service helped 2,335 people dealing with a no-fault eviction, up 16% on the same time last year, as well as more than 1,800 people dealing with disrepair such as damp and mould, and more than 1,000 with rent increases.Thackray Williams, a London- and Kent-based law firm, said it had received a wave of last-minute instructions from landlords looking to evict their tenants and sell their properties because of the legislation
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