Formula 1 could introduce "more of a problem to fix another problem" if its crunch meeting on Monday leads to changing the rules around energy management from the next race in Miami.

Discussions between stakeholders over changes to the 2026 rules continue this week. Following technical representative meetings earlier in April, CEOs and team principals will meet with the FIA and F1 on Monday to decide what, if anything, will change immediately when the season resumes at the start of May.

As major adjustments to the fundamentals of the 2026 rules package are not possible, the solutions revolve around tweaks to the rules around how the battery can be charged and how the electric part of the engine, the MGU-K, can be used.

There is an emphasis on ensuring qualifying is less compromised by extreme energy-harvesting tactics, and a reduction in the closing-speed differentials that can arise when two cars are in very different states of battery usage.

The latter was emphasised by a big crash for Ollie Bearman at the last race in Japan, when he went off after getting caught out behind Franco Colapinto.

Grand Prix Drivers' Association director George Russell, who is second behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the championship, suggested that these two priorities could be addressed by "a lot of low-hanging fruit" in the regulations.

One item on the agenda is allowing the MGU-K to be used as a generator at a maximum 350kW capacity when 'super clipping' instead of 250kW, which is the current limit.

Super clipping is when the MGU-K is switched off, then used in reverse to charge the battery by running the MGU-K against the engine while the driver remains at full throttle.

"The minus-350kW super clip is a no-brainer, and that already in itself is going to avoid a lot of lift-and-coast," Russell said.

"And there's other small parts of the regulation that say you can only derate the engine at a certain rate [by 50kW per second from 350kW to 0kW].

"So on a very short straight, there isn't enough time to go from 350kW to a super clip, because the straight is too short [to complete the staggered rampdown then engage the MGU-K in reverse].

"Some small changes around these regulations will have a major improvement for the overall driving experience.

"This break's offered a good opportunity for everyone to go around that loop. The FIA have been in a lot of comms with a handful of drivers, and that has been collective.

"And at least from the FIA technical standpoint, it's probably the closest relationship we've had with them in numerous years. So that's very positive to see."

Super clipping leads to the strange phenomenon of seeing and hearing cars slow down significantly in the final part of straights while the driver is at full throttle.

The Vmax of an F1 car - how its speed trace looks and where its maximum velocity is achieved - should peak late on a straight but with the 2026 cars it peaks earlier and gradually declines.

Making the super clip effect bigger would not help this, but as Russell said the argument is it would reduce the need to lift-and-coast as well.

And in addition, another idea for how the rules could change is to also reduce the total amount of energy that can be harvested over a qualifying lap.

However, even Russell acknowledged "there will be a compromise somewhere, because right now the cars are set up to produce the fastest laptimes possible".

The aim of tactics like super clipping and lift and coast, along with conventional charging under braking while driving normally, is to recharge the battery as much as the rules allow - and then have more energy to deploy across the lap as a result.

In an energy-limited formula, the goal is to charge and discharge the battery as much as possible.

Reduce how much this can be done and there will be less aggressive tactics but also the peak power of the engine's electrical component cannot be used as often.

This means more of the lap will be spent without deployment and even if there is some gain by also not charging and slowing the car down as much in certain areas, the laptime will be slower overall.

"Reducing the amount you recover reduces the amount that you deploy," said Haas head of car engineering, Hoagy Nidd.

"And what it means is that you can recover a greater proportion of what you need to do whilst under braking conditions or under part-throttle conditions on corner exit - normal, grip-limited areas of the circuit.

"That means that if you achieve your energy target under more normal driving conditions, you don't need to start altering your behaviour in order to make the final megajoule of energy. So you don't need to start having lift-and-coasts, you don't need to start using super clip, you don't need to have the drivers holding part-throttle on exit of corners to avoid deploying in one place and putting it somewhere else.

"It's something that, in a way, is kind of introducing more of a problem to fix another problem, and maybe not ideal, but it's probably where we are with this current hardware across the whole grid."

Asked by The Race what problem is introduced, Nidd said: "Well, we're already in quite an energy-starved formula, aren't we? And further reducing that, it perhaps means that you have more clipping and less time when the cars are running as fast as they possibly could."

This likely means conventional clipping rather than the super clip. Clipping was already an established part of the hybrid rules era, it was just less prominent and usually indicative of an issue rather than a baked-in technique teams did deliberately.

Normal clipping just means the battery runs out of energy to deploy, so the MGU-K shuts off and therefore the speed 'clips' towards the end of the straights.

This is likely to happen more if the rules are changed to reduce the amount of energy available because even if the battery can't be charged using the MGU-K in reverse on the straights - ie with a 'super' clip - it still does not have enough energy to keep extracting the MGU-K's power.

In other words, nothing comes for free. If F1 does want to 'normalise' the car behaviour in qualifying by eliminating the most unpopular 2026 techniques, having a more conventional Vmax and so on, then these slightly more 'normal' cars will be slower than they could be

That may be a trade-off drivers and fans are willing to take. Monday's meeting will reveal if the people making the decision agree - then, if they do, Miami will provide the first evidence of what the consequences really are.