We, the fans and enthusiasts of Formula 1 around the world, declare:
The Formula 1 we love is dying. Not from lack of interest. Not from lack of passion. It is being killed by regulations that have stripped the sport of its very soul.
The problem is clear.
Since 2014, with the introduction of hybrid turbo V6 power units and the ever-growing role of electrical energy — MGU-K, MGU-H, batteries that increasingly decide races — Formula 1 has stopped being a competition won by the best driver. Today, the winner is whoever has the best energy management software. An algorithm wins. Not a human being.
Today's cars are computers on wheels. Drivers receive constant instructions: when to harvest energy, when to deploy it, how to ration the battery lap after lap. Driving skill has become secondary to electrical engineering. This is not racing. This is not sport.
The overtakes we don't want.
They tell us there are more overtakes today. That is true. But we don't want them.
An overtake where one car activates DRS and its electrical surplus on a straight, breezing past an opponent who can do absolutely nothing to defend — that is not an overtake. It is a formality. It is a position change dictated by technology, not by bravery.
We want the overtakes of Villeneuve and Arnoux at Dijon. We want impossible braking, wheel-to-wheel battles, hearts pounding. We want a driver to take a risk, to brake a metre later, to put his talent and his nerve on the line. We do not want fake overtakes that inflate statistics while draining every drop of emotion from the sport.
If the overtakes are artificial, we would rather have none at all. A Grand Prix with few but genuine overtakes is worth more than a hundred position changes dictated by electronics.
What we demand:
Engines worthy of Formula 1. We want power units where thermal power leads the way. Whether V8, V10, or V12 — we want cars you can hear, cars that make grandstands tremble, cars that demand muscle and reflexes to be tamed.
Elimination or drastic reduction of the electrical component. Energy recovery makes sense in road cars. In Formula 1, it is a distortion that erases the differences between drivers and rewards whoever has the best software.
Abolition of DRS. If the cars can follow and overtake through their own power and driver skill, an artificial movable wing is unnecessary. If they cannot, the problem lies in the aerodynamic regulations — not in a makeshift fix like DRS.
Less electronics, more driver. Minimise electronic driving aids: simplified engine mappings, fewer strategic communications from the pit wall, more real-time decisions made by the driver alone.
Transparency and sporting honesty. Fans deserve to know that the result on track depends on the person behind the wheel — not on an engineer staring at a screen.
Formula 1 is not a technology laboratory. It is the most spectacular sport in the world, and it has always been so because of its drivers — not its batteries. Senna did not win because of an algorithm. Schumacher did not dominate because his software was superior. These men won because they were the best, and their cars allowed them to prove it — not prevented them from doing so.
We call on the FIA and Liberty Media to listen to the people who live, breathe, and pay for Formula 1: the fans. Before it is too late.
Sign this petition. Give us back Formula 1.