Formula 1 in 2026 will introduce far more complex energy management, prompting teams to coach their drivers in the simulator on how to change driving style, recovery strategies, and boost usage depending on situations and circuits. According to McLaren, overtaking and wheel-to-wheel battles will become a true game of cat and mouse, especially during the first months of the new era.
The 2026 revolution will bring a huge number of changes, particularly on the technical side, with the introduction of new Power Units and active aerodynamics extended to the front axle. These elements have led many drivers to say that they will need to reinvent themselves this season, including their driving style, because with such an influential hybrid component in lap time generation, the overall approach to several aspects of driving will inevitably change.
It is therefore no surprise that many teams have explained how they have spent recent months, including the winter break, “educating” their drivers on the most effective tactics to maximise energy management over the course of a lap. While, as was already the case with previous turbo-hybrid Power Units, much of the process is automated, there are still areas where driver input can make a real difference.
“As soon as the driver becomes involved, our best tool is the simulator, because we can do a lot to prepare them and help them understand the principles of the new regulations and these Power Units, such as the need to use energy strategically over the lap, where and how to recover it consciously, and then decide where to deploy it,” explained Mark Temple, McLaren’s head of performance.
“Obviously, a large part of energy management is handled by the Power Unit control systems, but there are also aspects that remain under the direct control of the driver, who needs to understand them and exploit them in the best possible way. The simulator is the best tool to grasp this. We have worked with our colleagues at Mercedes [the Power Unit supplier] to recreate some of those characteristics in the simulator.”
To truly understand how the new Power Units work, models capable of replicating their behaviour are required, even if only in a virtual environment. This is something that can inevitably only come from the manufacturer that developed the unit itself. Mercedes, for example, already has the data needed to describe the engine’s characteristics and drivability within its simulation models.
This is a time-consuming process and, unsurprisingly, McLaren also went through a long development phase, first with test drivers and then with its two race drivers. The challenge now is to understand how different circuits influence energy recovery modes, because each track has its own characteristics and the behaviour of the Power Unit can vary significantly between qualifying and the race.
In the previous technical cycle, battery usage already varied clearly between Saturday and Sunday, but its overall importance was far lower than what will be seen in 2026, when the electric component will be three times more powerful. As a result, the way it is managed will also change. It is no coincidence that the FIA has reduced the amount of recoverable energy in qualifying, in order to prevent the adoption of extreme hybrid management techniques.
“Australia, Bahrain and so on: drivers have to understand the different challenges they face, for example during a qualifying lap, a race lap, or various race situations. Part of the work concerns the information they receive from the car through the display and the input provided by engineers, but a lot will simply depend on their ability to learn and understand how to use the energy,” Temple continued.
The most complex aspect to simulate is undoubtedly overtaking, because in the simulator there is no true reference point. There is no real opponent to fight against, as will be the case on track from the very first race. Teams can only try to replicate certain typical scenarios, which help drivers understand how, and to what extent, the battery might be depleted, and therefore how best to manage it in the most intense phases of racing.
With DRS, apart from rare cases, there were few genuinely strategic situations, except for consecutive zones that allowed a driver who had just been overtaken to open the rear wing and immediately regain the position. The reality is that in 2026 it will be energy that enables overtaking, and with a more powerful MGU-K, there is a real risk of finding yourself almost out of charge at critical moments.
“With DRS, as long as you were close enough, there wasn’t much of a tactical element in how the driver used the available controls. In 2026, the amount of energy available will play a much greater role in strategy. If we think about a circuit like Bahrain, with three long straights one after the other, deciding where to deploy the energy will make a huge difference,” Temple added.
There will be circuits, possibly with very few recovery zones, where it will become essential to plan carefully how to use energy, although this is difficult to execute during close battles, where drivers are obviously fighting for position. “Drivers will face a very steep learning curve, especially at the beginning, as they try to understand how an opponent will react to a single move. It will be a bit like a game of cat and mouse. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, because we cannot predict everything.”
As in the past, drivers will also be able to rely on “boost”: a mode that, regardless of track position, allows them to press a button and deploy the full electric power output of 350 kW. This option already existed in previous years, even for drivers on the attack, but back then the MGU-K’s capacity was far more limited and its use had a much smaller impact on battery state.
“In previous years, we already had the idea of wanting a full battery to facilitate overtaking, but with the same capacity and available energy, the power level was much lower, so you used it for a longer period. Now, however, we have a battery with similar capacity, but with a higher power level.”
“That allows you, if you want, to deploy it all on a single straight, getting a bigger boost at that point thanks to the extra power. But if you do that, you may reach the end of the straight with the battery empty, which could leave you exposed on the next straight, which in the past might not have been such a favourable overtaking point.”
This is because the electric component of the Power Unit, thanks to such a powerful motor, will give drivers a much stronger push already on corner exit, far beyond what was seen in the past. If that energy runs out, however, the risk is losing traction at the most critical moment, exposing the driver to an immediate counter-attack and a potential overtake.
There will be circuits that are far more energy-intensive, with limited recovery opportunities, where drivers will have to adapt their driving style to maximise battery management over the entire lap. Other tracks, on the other hand, will offer greater margins. It is likely that, over time, strategies will converge, but at the beginning it will be a phase of exploration for everyone.
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