Following the season opener in Melbourne, the new era of racing in F1 was subject to mixed reviews from fans, with some excited by George Russell and Charles Leclerc's epic battle, but others critical of 'artificial racing' and a tamer second half of the race.

F1's social media, unsurprisingly, has painted a more positive picture of the new regulations, but fans have claimed they have manipulated race footage, and have even gone as far as 'censoring' negative opinions in their replies.

Starting with the Colapinto post, F1 was sharing a video on X of the Argentine achieving the fastest speed in Melbourne, but a 'community note' was added after fan backlash to add context highlighting the 'super clipping' problem with the 2026 cars.

In the video, fans note that the audio cuts out just as Colapinto's A526 winds down and harvests energy just before taking Turn 9.

And while F1 did rightfully censor replies that were vulgar and offensive, fans believe some genuine concerns have been also hidden, including one user's comment: "The gearing down on the back straight hurt my soul."

This led to another community note saying: "In addition to the other community note, F1 is, once again, hiding replies, censoring the fans' opinion about the new regulations."

Another tweet has also come under scrutiny. Following the Australian GP, F1 posted the high number of overtakes achieved in Melbourne, 120, an increase on the 45 in wet conditions last year.

Again, many offensive replies were understandably hidden, but it does appear that some more reasonable replies were also taken off the comments.

One hidden reply said: "Worst overtakes... without any racing... the cars just pass each other due to energy differences."

While another said: "How many were actually meaningful to the race, tit for tat passing because technical advantage alternates is not racing."

Elsewhere on social media, fans lambasted Apple TV's F1 debut coverage, as many questioned the American streaming site's interface and the quality of the broadcast.

Fans even compared the change to the introduction of Formula 1’s new power units, which received a similarly negative verdict from most drivers.

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