Name: Why F1's trying to ditch a core part of its 2026 rules
Uploaded: 2025-04-29T04:01:59.000Z
Duration: 8 min 24 s
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Formula One chiefs will discuss with teams later this week

the idea of a significant change to the 2026 engine rules

Adverbs of manner

aimed  at heading off fears about cars repeatedly running out of energy on the straights.

Ahead of the all-new turbo-hybrid regulations that are coming for next year,

a radical proposal has been added to the agenda

for the next F1 commission meeting that takes place in Geneva on Thursday.

The idea to be debated by teams and senior figures from FOM

and the FIA is for F1 to move away in part from

a much-heralded aspect of the new rules that are on the horizon.

between the internal combustion engine and battery elements of

the new power units, where 350kW comes from both elements.

While the originally intended 50-50 split will remain for qualifying,

the suggestion being looked at is to step back from letting teams

run the full 350kW from the batteries in the races themselves.

If the plan goes ahead, the maximum allowed would be just 200kW,

which will shift the power ratio from 50-50 ICE battery to 64-36.

The hope is that by reducing the maximum power that can be deployed,

it will allow the battery to be used for an extended period around the lap,

therefore minimising the chances of drivers being left with no extra energy at all.

just nine months out from the 2026 cars hitting the track for the first time.

When F1 elected to rip up the rulebook for 26 and do something different,

it was heavily motivated by the desire to get more manufacturers involved in F1.

The main target was obviously the Volkswagen group,

with both its Audi and Porsche brands potentially

ready to join Grand Prix racing if the rules were attractive enough.

There were three key elements that were viewed as critical to get them in.

The first was the move to fully sustainable fuels,

which is seen as a critical step in F1's transition to become net-carbon neutral.

The second was getting rid of the energy harvesting

which converted excess heat from the engine into battery power.

This device was deemed to be too complicated,

too expensive and not road-relevant enough.

The third element required was an increase in electrification,

with F1 eventually deciding to make a major step from the 120kW

that is available now from battery power all the way up to 350kW.

This means that batteries will contribute as much as

the internal combustion engine itself to the overall power figure,

which is what has triggered the 50-50 concept.

Even though Porsche's plans to enter F1 fell by the wayside after

it could not agree a deal with Red Bull, the planned 26 rules did their job

in attracting Audi in and they also convinced Honda to rethink its planned exit.

However, the rules were widely viewed as being a bit of a compromise because,

as manufacturers began working on the all-new power units,

they quickly realised that things would not be perfect with the way things had been shaped.

A combination of losing the MGU-H to harvest energy,

as well as an increased allowance in deploying battery power,

meant the engines were going to end up being energy-starved.

In simple terms, this means there's not enough power

harvested to allow as much deployment around a lap as teams would like.

While that may not be a huge headache at venues without long straights,

for some power-sensitive tracks like Monza, there have been worries that

cars could run out of energy halfway down the straight,

triggering a poor spectacle and huge frustrations for drivers.

Max Verstappen famously revealed that, from an early simulator run he'd done,

he ended up having to change down gear on the Monza straight

after the car had run out of battery power entirely.

Some of the early fears were, however, triggered by teams running in simulators of cars

that had a lot more drag than the designs will get next year.

Active aero has become a core part of the cars for 26,

where wings will go into low drag mode down the straights

to  help minimise the energy that's required to propel them at speed.

Furthermore, two additional demands have been put in the regulations

to ensure that drivers are not suddenly left with zero power halfway down the straights.

The first relates to car speed and demands that once the cars are up to a certain velocity,

then the limit of electric energy that can be used starts dropping away

from the peak 350kW allowed at the 26 power units.

As can be seen here, this starts reducing as cars approach 300kmph,

then tapers off more aggressively from 340kph before it hits zero at about 345kph.

Perhaps of more importance though is an article in the technical regulations

that limits the rate at which power can be reduced, so there's no cliff edge potential.

This is known as the turn down ramp rate and effectively prevents teams

from burning all the power quickly to arrive at a point

where drivers instantly go from having maximum power to none at all.

There are two ramp rates laid down, one for tracks where power

will be very limited and then a different metric for everywhere else.

At those tracks where the FIA determines that

the power limited distance exceeds 3,500m,

then the power can be reduced at no greater rate than 50kW in any one second period.

For any other venue, the rate of reduction is capped at 100kW in any one second period.

At Monza, which would fall into the power limited track category,

it will take 7 seconds for the battery to go from 350kW to zero.

If we do some calculations, the start finish straight there is approximately 15 seconds long.

So if there was in theory enough energy to run for half that straight at max power,

say 7.5 seconds, without any restrictions,

then things are different with the ramp down limit.

It will mean teams can run around 4 seconds at 350kW,

This means 11 seconds of energy in total,

which is now three quarters of the straight.

It's a scenario very different from those earlier fears.

Combined together, these extra rules force teams to

focus on efficiency of the battery power rather than efficiency of lap time,

what they would have done without any restrictions,

at the start of the straight until the batteries are empty.

While some manufacturers are confident that

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