Carlos Sainz raises 'million-dollar question' after 'what the hell is going on' experience

Carlos Sainz has addressed what he is expecting from the next generation of F1 cars, with comprehensive regulations changes coming into force for the 2026 season.

The Williams driver anticipates that he and his peers will initially be left questioning "what the hell is going on" when the new cars first hit the track in a private test in January.

However, the four-time grand prix winner believes they will all quickly adapt, comparing the rules rewrite to the significant power unit changes that were introduced in 2014.

Focusing mainly on that side of the regulations, Sainz explained how the new cars occupy "a lot of brain space" when asked for his early impressions from his simulator testing.

"Very complicated," the 30-year-old replied to media, including RacingNews365. "It occupies a lot of brain space while you're driving.

"But I think if you ask… I think Lewis [Hamilton, who was alongside in the FIA press conference] was in the big regulation change between 2013 and 2014 - going from a normal V8 to a complex V6 with battery management and all these things.

"For sure, at the time, it was a shock - how much the driver had to think about things that before, on the V8, we would never think about. But then we all got used to it, we all adapted, and now it feels normal.

"I think with next year it’s going to be something similar. At the beginning, we’re all like: what the hell is going on here? Why do we need to do so much of this? Why is the car feeling different every lap?

"But then, by the time we start racing with it and the races go by, everything will feel more natural - something we’re more used to - and it will become the new normal."

The 'million-dollar question'

There has been plenty of concern and criticism shared by the Spanish driver's contemporaries, and he did acknowledge how the "million-dollar question" will be whether the new cars are an improvement on the modern ground-effect era.

Nonetheless, Sainz maintains they will "become good at it like we always do", no matter the challenges put before the drivers.

"The big question is whether that new normal is better than the old normal," he added. "That’s the million-dollar question that everyone wants to have a say on or have an opinion about.

"But I think as drivers, we’ll just adapt to whatever they give us. We’ll just go as fast as we can.

"If we have to do six or seven switch changes through a lap, we’ll do them. And we’ll just become good at it like we always do."