The internal combustion engines inside next year’s Formula One cars will be 67bhp more powerful than this year’s V6 units, while power from the energy recovery system – the fiddly electric bit – will be cut by the same amount.
Following a partial easing off the e-throttle in Miami, the teams, the FIA, F1 and the engine makers have all agreed to juice the ICE up a bit for next year to make driving the cars “more intuitive” and safer.
We’ll have to wait until 2027 to find out if the changes are enough, but in short, they amount to building on the “positive step” taken at the last race. Safe to say reaction to the 2026 powertrains has, by most accounts, not been… positive.
Largely because these new units (which focus more heavily on harvesting and e-power) have resulted in massive – and dangerous – speed offsets, and drivers having to unlearn the most fundamental aspects of going flat out as much as possible.
So, cranking up the ICE power and cutting electricity seems to be a route through. The proposals from today’s meeting will still have to be ratified, mind, but the FIA will continue to work on improving start-safety and racing under wet conditions in the background.
“Turning to the longer-term refinement of the regulations, it was agreed in principle to introduce evolutionary changes to the rules regarding hardware components, making competition safer, fairer and more intuitive for drivers and teams,” said the FIA.
Even longer longer-term, FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem has kicked around the idea of binning hybrids altogether and bringing back V8s… having called for a return to V10s only last year. Thoughts?