On the eve of the British Grand Prix, drivers expected Silverstone to expose the biggest weaknesses of the 2026 Formula 1 cars. With its long flat-out sections and limited opportunities to recharge the battery, the circuit appeared perfectly suited to highlight the shortcomings of the new power units. In reality, however, the race weekend proved far less dramatic than the simulations had suggested.
One of the key reasons was Copse Corner. The natural reduction in speed through the famous high-speed bend before the circuit’s flowing sequence helped disguise the loss of acceleration caused when the MGU-K stopped delivering power. The biggest concern had been that some of Formula 1’s most spectacular sections would effectively become medium-speed stretches because of energy limitations.
To put the difference into perspective, last year, with a headwind, cars approached 316 km/h after Copse. With the new power units, top speeds dropped to around 280 km/h. A similar pattern was seen on the Hangar Straight, where the control electronics cut electrical assistance, leaving only the internal combustion engine providing power. Rather than continuing to accelerate, the cars simply maintained a constant speed without suffering an actual drop in velocity.
At circuits like Australia and Japan, drivers reached much higher speeds before entering the so-called superclipping phase. At Silverstone, however, the phenomenon was far less noticeable. The only sections where the reduced acceleration became more apparent were the opening corners and the fast sequence in the second sector, although the surrounding corners themselves helped hide the effect.
The big question now is whether Spa-Francorchamps could also produce a more positive surprise than expected, just as Silverstone did, or whether the Belgian circuit will confirm the fears many drivers have already expressed.
“I love Spa, but Spa will be another race that feels like a punch to the heart because the energy usage will be similar to what we experienced here at Silverstone,” Max Verstappen said during the British Grand Prix weekend.
Oliver Bearman echoed those concerns, adding: “Let’s not celebrate too early, because Spa is still coming. Maybe Silverstone will end up looking fantastic when compared to Spa.” His comments suggest that managing energy could become an even bigger challenge in Belgium. But what exactly are the drivers worried about, and why could this prove to be such a demanding weekend for the new power units?
Spa has no corners to hide the loss of speed
The first and most obvious factor is the circuit’s long straights. Spa has always been one of the toughest tracks for power units, forcing engineers to find a delicate balance between straight-line performance and the high-downforce demands of the fast second sector. This compromise should become slightly easier thanks to the FIA allowing the use of active aerodynamics in five different sections of the lap.
That leads to another crucial point: how energy is distributed throughout the lap. At Silverstone, reducing the maximum recoverable energy by one megajoule helped limit excessive superclipping and masked some of the weaknesses of the 2026 regulations. At Spa, however, a significant portion of the battery charge will inevitably be spent on the circuit’s long straights.
Silverstone was initially expected to allow up to 7.5 MJ of recovered energy per lap before the FIA lowered the limit to 6.5 MJ to reduce superclipping. At Spa, unless there are last-minute changes, the governing body plans to raise the qualifying limit to 8 MJ per lap. The challenge lies not only in the amount of energy available, but also in how it must be deployed. In Belgium, the longest full-throttle sections are concentrated in very specific parts of the lap, making energy management significantly more complicated and increasing drivers’ concerns.
The FIA has authorised the use of active aerodynamics from the run between Turn 1, La Source, and Eau Rouge. It was an unavoidable decision, because the flat-out section from the exit of La Source to the end of the Kemmel Straight stretches for around one and a half kilometres. While this resembles some of the situations seen at Silverstone, there is one fundamental difference: at Spa there are no intervening corners capable of disguising the reduction in acceleration once electrical deployment comes to an end, making the loss of speed much more obvious.
“You can’t spread the energy across every straight. If you use it from Turn 1 (La Source) to Turn 5 (Les Combes), your lap is effectively over because you’ve run out of energy. So you have to save some there in order to have deployment from Turn 14 (Stavelot) to the Bus Stop. But if you use the energy on those two straights, which are the ideal deployment zones, then you spend a long time in Sector 2 without any deployment,” Fernando Alonso explained.
“And without deployment, we can’t forget that this year we have significantly less power than last season, and even less power than Formula 2. So yes, it’s a real challenge.”
Alonso’s comments perfectly illustrate the issue. Silverstone features far more slow-speed corners where drivers can recharge the battery, meaning that after Turns 3 and 4, and again after Turn 7, the battery was already replenished with energy. Spa, by contrast, offers far fewer opportunities to recover charge, making efficient energy management much more critical over the course of a lap.
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