Why lift and coast in qualifying 'should no longer be a thing' at the Miami GP

Qualifying has been a major source of discontent among F1 drivers and fans alike throughout the opening races of 2026, with critics lamenting the fact that drivers have to counter-intuitively attack corners more slowly in order to recharge their batteries and ultimately achieve faster lap times.

After a series of April meetings, F1 stakeholders agreed on a set of revised rules to be introduced in Miami, addressing concerns around qualifying, racing, and safety. Among the changes are a reduced recharge in qualifying, increased super-clipping power, a boost cap of +150 kW, as well as aids to slow race starts.

The former two - a reduced harvesting limit from eight megajoules (MJ) to seven, and an increase in super-clipping power from 250kW to 350 - are changes focused on by McLaren's Temple, who believes the need to lift and coast in qualifying should now be a thing of the past.

Speaking to media, including GPblog, on the recent changes, Temple explained: "The biggest impact is from a driving point of view. The idea is to get rid of some of these things that the drivers don't like doing in qualifying.

"There are two parts to it. One of them is what we call lift and coast, which should no longer be a thing in qualifying, which is where the driver actually lifted off the throttle and then coasted into the braking zone and then hit the brakes.

"We've now got a situation where it's more efficient and that's controlled by the power unit, so the driver can stay at full throttle and the power unit will recover the energy, straight mode will stay active, so the car slows down less."

"And then they also have the more natural feeling of going from full throttle directly onto the brakes rather than having this intermediate phase. In addition, the total amount of time and the duration of any single super clip or coasting phase is significantly reduced. So, when you do have that, it's quite small."

Temple concluded that the updated 2026 rules will allow the drivers to perform more naturally than they have done so far - suggesting that qualifying will now look more similar to previous years as the procedures become more simplified for those behind the wheel.