The long-awaited guidelines of the technical regulation for the 2026 Formula 1 power unit, announced by the FIA on August 16, have confirmed some of the typical patterns of modern F1. Ecological and financial sustainability will represent increasingly stringent constraints in the design of the engines for the near future.
These will be turbo-hybrid power units from which the FIA and Liberty Media expect performances similar to those of the current engines, with the goal to reaffirm the technological avant-garde of Formula 1 in the field of motorsport. In a global scenario in which governments do not seem to have clear ideas about the mobility of the future, Formula 1 takes on a new path: engines with 100% sustainable fuels and a large increase in the diffusion of electricity.
If the complex management of the limited budget available (130 million dollars starting from the 2026 season, nda) and the standardization of numerous components are added to the eco-sustainable approach, the question of the current performance of the power units represents a huge challenge for the engine manufacturers. The new requirements in terms of power units that can be used during the season are even more restrictive than those in force until the 2025 season.
If the green turning point and the introduction of the budget cap represent mandatory choices, the number of power units over a season has already been a constraint that has been duly eluded by all engine manufacturers for several years.
The question is philosophical: can Formula 1 be the cutting edge of technology applied to four wheels with restrictions worthy of an endurance championship? In theory yes, in reality absolutely not.
Already during last season, Mercedes demonstrated that the penalties for the numerous homologations exceeding those allowed on the turbo-hybrid unit still made it possible for them to win the constructors ‘championship and in fact also the drivers’ championship until the penultimate lap of the the final race, in Abu Dhabi. Following Mercedes’ example, Ferrari’s engineers have designed an extreme power unit for the 2022 Formula 1 season. Probably aware of having to sacrifice something in terms of reliability.
The significant gap with rivals Mercedes and Honda at the end of last season was a valid reason to put performance before reliability when designing the 066/7 power unit. Probably, in the original intentions of the Ferrari team, the 2022 championship was to be the year of complete technological recovery compared to Red Bull and Mercedes in which technical problems could / should have been accepted as the side effect of a huge leap in performance.
The brilliant start to the current campaign confirmed the excellent work of the Ferrari technical area, fueling ambitions that exceed the real targets for the 2022 championship. The development freeze of the turbo-hybrid units, which will be completed on 1 September with the electrical components of the engines, has never been considered a point of no return by the engineers. The possibility of modifying the power units even in the homologation regime through derogations for reasons of reliability, represents in fact an opportunity to achieve the necessary reliability for deliberately extreme technical projects.
The extreme design approach actually eludes the limitations imposed by the International Federation on the number of elements of the power unit that can be used during a season. The further reduction on the number of engines starting from the 2026 season, as well as being inadequate for the category that should enhance performance instead of durability, could induce manufacturers to follow in the footsteps of Mercedes and Ferrari. That is, extreme technical projects of the respective power units from the performance point of view instead of reliability, however recoverable through the derogation process.
Furthermore, in an increasingly busy calendar, skilfully managed penalties on the grid can be the lesser evil on tracks where easy overtaking and intelligent racing can guarantee solid comebacks. While, from an aerodynamic point of view, the 2023 regulation has already provided for limitations to original interpretations, as in the case of the geometry of the Mercedes front wing endplate, on the power unit side the FIA is so restrictive that it becomes systematically evaded.
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The defect of form is that the rules are opposed to the very essence of Formula 1, a nature that the teams claim using the tools offered by the FIA to affirm their technological progress.
It is clear that the idea of penalties on the grid in the face of new approvals is a bankruptcy instrument and risks undermining the credibility of the regulation itself in view of further restrictions in 2026.
Probably a significant reduction of points in the constructors’ standings with each new homologation of a specific component of the turbo-hybrid units would be a measure to which teams would pay much more attention. Especially in the design phase of the new 2026 engines, giving much more attention to the performance / reliability compromise.
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