F1 concern raised over 'two leagues' divide as latest rules change bites again

Pierre Gasly has highlighted that F1 appears to be operating as "two leagues" due to the major gap that exists between the top four teams and the rest of the pack.

New regulations introduced this year have aided the spread, a situation that has been commonplace in F1 over the last handful of rule resets.

In 2025, the last year of the previous cycle of regulations, the competition was among the closest ever seen in the sport as the teams struggled to uncover additional pace.

Gasly is hopeful that a similar picture will be conjured in F1 in the coming years as the development peak reaches its limit.

"If you look at 2025, it was probably the most bunched-up field that we had," Gasly told media including RacingNews365.

"Looking at the past, every time you threw new regulations, they targeted bringing the field closer.

"I don't know if the stats back me up, but every time it feels like all the gaps get bigger and then eventually get smaller as the regulation and everybody gets to the maximum of what you can do.

"Let's give it another year or two, and hopefully that field can get quite close."

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Gasly calls on Alpine to do 'better job' amid performance gap

While a major gap exists in the standings between fourth and fifth, Gasly highlighted that the fight between the front-runners has been enjoyable to watch.

The Alpine driver insisted that it is up to the teams lagging behind to ensure they can catch up going forward.

"If I look at the top four, for motorsport fans, it's quite exciting at the moment.

"You had the McLaren winning, you had the Ferrari winning at some point. Red Bull and Max are back. Mercedes is very competitive.

"From that front, it's quite tight. It's just the gap between these top teams and the midfield, which is, at the moment too big, there is two leagues within the same league.

"At the end of the day, I don't want to complain about that because it's down to us to do a better job and deliver a better performance, and that's what we're going to focus on."