Formula 1 has increased excitement compared to the potential return of the V10 engines. This roaring sound is part of the history and identity of sport.
However, calls from higher characters in the Paddock F1, including the President of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, considered the refund of loud engines used for the last time 20 years ago, also raised questions.
If in the coming years, a simpler, louder and cheaper V10 engines, running on fully sustainable fuels, and the result of smaller and lighter car designs, what is happening interdisciplinary? And how would it impact on the change of immediate energy units scheduled for 2026?
Inteed parties F1 have been working on engine 2026 and have been maintaining the V6 hybrid base for years. Since his consent in the summer of 2022, he encouraged the rules of Audi, Ford (via Red Bull) and General Motors to join the grid, and also reversed the decision of Honda to stop, all thanks to the commitment to fully sustainable fuel and greater electrification. In the case of Audi and Red Bull, the development of their new motor programs required significant investments and recruitment, which has reached hundreds of millions of dollars.
These rules were to cover a five -year cycle from 2026 to the end of 2030.
In a round table of selected media, including Athletic, On Sunday in Shanghai, Nikolas Tombazis, director FIA, who helps shape the future F1 rules, he framed discussion on future engine regulations as two questions.
The first applies to the long -term direction of sport and whether F1 wants another type of energy unit in the next three or four years. “If the answer is yes, (we want to change something, then the question number two is:” What do we do in the period of the intervening? “Tombazis said. This period begins next year.
“I want to say at the beginning of about 2026 that in any case we will stay with the current regulations or whether we are already approved by a new regulation, I think Formula 1 would be in a good place,” said Tombazis. “I don’t want it to be considered a kind:” Well, we panic around 2026, “because it’s not a reality.”
On Friday in China, the main Christian Horner claimed the Red Bull Team team that there were “restrictions” with the rules of next year, which could affect a spectacle on the sport line due to “shortcomings of electrification and combustion” with a new energy unit that relies more on electricity in the energy unit. This “restriction” would relate to consistent performance problems across the network, which could affect the quality of competition and racing.
However, Tombazis said that he and the wider FIA did not share what he called the “terrifying” view that raised the potential impact of the 2026 regulation on the races.
“I think they will be closely competing with each other, they will be able to fight each other and use the driver’s skill, etc.,” said Tombazis. “So basically, I think I don’t share panic stories. I remind people that for ’22 regulations were panic stories about how massively the cars would be slow.” This was when the F1 last carried out the main overwork of the aerodynamic regulations that were not on the scale of 2026, when both car designs and energy units change.
“I’m not saying everything was perfect,” Tombazis said about change 2022. “There are things in favor of a backward perspective that we would do differently. But I don’t think it was the disaster.”
Any change of plans for next year would depend on the position of all engine manufacturers. The investments and efforts that have already developed have led sport to the point where “10 past midnight and Cinderella left the building” to quote the upper.
Although the raffle agreed that the “train for 2026 had largely left the station”, he noted that the interviews of the “interim” period were driven by vibration as a result of FIA Ben Sulay, and called for an evaluation of the future transition to V10.
Tombazis added that the FIA does not want to save any changes that would prevent the team from competing. “We won’t just go to the majority,” he said. “We are trying to create a consensus here, and if it fails, we stay where we are (with an existing plan 2026).”
If the Energy Unit manufacturers should feel that it is better to encircle engines ’26 because of the potential negative impacts on sport – if it was “frightened” serious and fears were widely shared – then there are mechanisms that could lead to the current state with the current specifications of energy units that are of the interim solutions.
However, this would lead to other large knock-on effects and problems, given that Audi and Red Bull PowerRAINS/Ford did not create a V6 hybrid engine for current regulations. Other existing manufacturers moved all developments to future engines. Again, the idea of changing next year seems to be unthinkable.
On Sunday, Horner told reporters that he would be “very surprised” if the current rules continued next year. “I think all teams are at ’26 at the moment,” Horner said. “So we would have to understand what it was all about.” He also denied that Red Bull was promoted by the delay of the new rules and said he was “equipped and ready for” 26 “.
This Wolff, the director of the Mercedes team, did not think much about the possibility of not getting 2026.
“It will all be good,” he told reporters, calling a change “exciting adventure” for the F1 grid, which meant that it should be celebrated, not upset with the look at what follows the upcoming change.
Mercedes Team Principal This Wolff (Fadel Senna/AFP through Getty Images)
“Here we should emphasize,” Wolff said. “This is what we should cheer and talk about the fact that all the goodness that will bring rather than look too far forward.”
Audi spokesman issued a statement that the upcoming proposal for the change of rules and energy units was “a key factor in the Audi decision to enter the formula One. The German manufacturer has established its own F1 engine program and bought the Sauber team on the basis of these rules – which can now take only a few years.
Assuming things continue as planned for 2026, as most still expect, the wind is currently blowing towards a shorter cycle from the original five years to change the formula of the energy unit.
The desire for a long -term gaming plan shares an average of higher characters, which means it will be in the coming months of speaking. The positions of different energy units manufacturers could be influenced by their relative competitive positions in political battles next year. If one team has created the best energy unit and has an advantage that would be difficult to overcome, it is only natural that it could try to protect and kick any shift in the regulations as much as possible – and that its opponents will try to fight.
Given how they celebrated the 2026 engine rules when it was announced in 2022, and the loan was provided when each new main manufacturer joined the grid, it is soon that they would soon be strange. But the raMBazists felt that two primary factors had caused the change of attitude. He first quoted perception from manufacturers to absorb electrification across the automotive industry that slowed the interest of consumers.
“In 2020, 2021, when these discussions were conducted, the trend was very definitely in the direction of electrification,” he said. “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but since then the opinions of participants have changed.”
He also emphasized the cost of producing energy units and the award of current proposals is “too expensive”. When the 2026 rules were announced, the improved cost control was announced as one of their advantages, but the raMBazists said their expenses were considered.
“Although Formula 1 is financially in very good health, it is also important to protect him from fluctuating the world economy and I think we have to take these protective measures while the sun is shining and not when it starts to rain, ideally,” he said. “It is important to consider the drive to reduce costs.
“All these things are not the things we would dream of without trying to respect all participants correctly.”
Wolff said Mercedes was “always open” with different engine solutions, but that F1 had to consider what the fans wanted and whether their opinions could change in the middle of a shift towards younger and more diverse Fanbase than in the past. For those who came into sports through “Drive to Survive”, the V6 hybrid sounds are all they know.
“All of this must be asked as questions,” Wolff said. “What are the goals for a future change of regulations for several years?
“Because this is the most important denominator between FIA, Formula 1, teams that we want to have the biggest product for our fans.”
(Top Photo: Peter Parks/AFP through Getty Images)
