Pat Symonds, executive consultant for Cadillac, has criticised the new FIA technical regulations, warning that they could penalise the Formula 1 cars of the 2026 season.
Did the 2026 Technical Regulations for power units give too much weight to the views of the Formula 1 teams? Former FIA technical director Pat Symonds has raised concerns about the new rules, pointing to the existence of a clear “mistake” that could negatively affect the cars built for the new era of Formula 1.
Now serving as executive consultant for the Cadillac team, which is set to make its Formula 1 debut in 2026, Symonds explained in an interview with Autocar the real reasons behind his departure from Formula One Management (FOM).
“It was a bit frustrating that the direction of Formula One was becoming less and less involved with the regulations. Especially the FIA and things like the 2026 power unit, which was not what I wanted,” he said.
Symonds has spent many years deeply involved in the technical side of Formula 1, and he recalls how the situation was slightly different at the dawn of the 2022 regulation cycle. “When we designed the 2022 car, we listened to what the teams wanted. But we guided them firmly. We also took on board some of their suggestions. We knew that each of them had an objective,” he added. “We were quite rigid about what we wanted.”
2026 regulations, the mistake made by the FIA on engines
According to Pat Symonds, the FIA made a key error with the 2026 Formula 1 regulations by involving the teams more heavily in the decision-making process. This is why the power unit for the new era “probably isn’t how I would have wanted it,” the former F1 insider complained.
“Unfortunately, it’s like when you ask a committee to design a racehorse and you end up with a camel.” The FIA decided to remove the MGU-H, something that “certainly improved engine efficiency enormously, but was quite complex,” Pat Symonds continued. The aim was “to try to encourage new manufacturers to enter the sport. In some ways it has been successful. Ford has arrived, Audi has arrived, and Cadillac has arrived.”
“Once you remove that source of energy, while keeping everything else the same, you increase the power demands of the engine and of everything else. The idea was to replace it with energy recovery from the front axle. That way, everything would balance out fairly well. There wouldn’t be any energy shortfalls, and the car could be more effectively electrified.”
2026 engines, one team opposed the concept
However, the proposal was not accepted by one Formula 1 team, which opposed energy recovery on the front axle. “I think the FIA president at the time, Jean Todt, thought we were talking about four-wheel drive, but that wasn’t the case. We were talking about energy recovery,” Symonds explained. “Perhaps you might drive it once on a straight, but certainly not through corners, so it wouldn’t be a conventional four-wheel-drive car.”
The resulting compromise has therefore led to what Symonds described as “a camel, a poor energy unit.” “Okay, there are ways to work around the problem, but they are not ideal,” he complained.
The 2026 power units may not be what the former F1 insider would have preferred, but he still believes there are positive elements to take forward. “The chassis, the aerodynamics, I think they are quite good. I believe active aerodynamics are a good step forward,” Symonds concluded.
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