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Formula 1 must make sure fans understand the strange changes they will see in racing this year, says Lewis Hamilton.

He expects F1’s new rules will cause confusion as drivers will have to slow down significantly at different points on the lap in order to conserve electrical energy. The extent to which this will be necessary will vary between tracks and cars.

Hamilton said the issue of when to conserve and when to deploy electrical energy is the biggest challenge in F1’s new regulations, “The rest of it is all kind of similar and familiar, but the deployment is so challenging and it’s different from track to track,” he said.

Drivers who consume extra energy to overtake a rival may find they lack power to stay ahead later in the lap, said Hamilton. “We probably also won’t know until we’re thrown in the deep end in the race to understand, when we overtake someone, how it’s going to affect us coming out of that corner and managing that is going to be difficult,” he explained.

In order to optimise their energy consumption around a lap, drivers will have to ‘lift and coast’ approaching corners far more so than in recent seasons and even on qualifying laps.

“On some tracks you don’t have to do lift-and-coast for a single lap and in some places you have to do a lot of lift-and-coast for a qualifying lap,” said Hamilton. “There can be a big difference between deployment, [up to] a second.

“If you don’t lift in one corner – for example turn six, turn five here, if you take it flat [out] or if you lift, it has a massive compound effect through the rest of the lap. You can do a good lap but you could be a second down because the deployment is off.

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“That’s going to be the biggest challenge, not only the drivers optimising it, but the team being on top of it and delivering.”

Hamilton, who is entering his 20th consecutive season in F1, described the new rules as the “most challenging” change he’s ever faced. “It’s always challenging when you have rule changes, but this one particularly is far bigger than at least the five that I’ve been through,” he said.

“It’s going to be something that we’re learning on the cuff. We’ve learned a lot from the test, but we’re going to be learning – this is also a bit of a test each weekend. You’re going to be learning more, you’re going to be faced with different challenges with the different characteristics of the circuit.”

As energy deployment is likely to have a significant effect on racing, and could be the reason behind many changes of position, Hamilton said Formula One Management must ensure fans understand what they are seeing.

“I just hope that Formula 1 is able to project that to the fans so they can understand what’s going on, because inside it’s a lot to fully understand. I hope commentators come and go speak to the teams, maybe understand it a little bit more, so you’re not just throwing ideas out there about what we’re trying to do or what the challenges [are] we are facing, because it’s no joke. It’s really, really challenging.”

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