Why Alonso is wrong about F1 return to V10’s – Formula One was thrown a curve ball in January this year, when the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, threw his weight behind the sport returning to more conventional engine power. This echoed suggestions made by F1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, who upon the announcement of the final hybrid specifications for the 2026 power units last June, admitted of the decision over future F1 powertrains was being now, the new hybrids would not be on the table.
The hybrids on the whole are hated by the drivers and the fans of F1 and their gentle rumble is a far cry from the screaming V8’s these power units replaced. Lewis Hamilton at Ferrai’s recent event in Milan gave his vision for the future of F1 power stating, “I hope that in 20 years we’ll have great races and we’ll have cars that sound good,” said the Briton.
“I certainly hope it’s not completely electric, but sustainable with V10 or V12 engines, with a zero carbon footprint or something like that,” added the seven times champion driver.
FIA suggest retaining current hybrids
The hybrid power units are highly complex, heavy and eye waveringly expensive for the customer teams. The additional weight has made the cars cumbersome in the slower corners although top speed has been vastly improved.
A return to normally aspirated engines in F1 with 100% bio fuel was suggested by Domenicali to be the way F1 should go in the future. He claimed the decisions to retain hybrids was a “political” one to entice new manufacturers into the sport, and to that end it has achieved its purpose.
Yet F1 is in boom times now with manufacturers and new teams falling over themselves to be involved. Even though they will not produce the new hybrid powertrains, two US giants in Ford and General Motors are committed to F1 from 2026.
The cat was truly set amongst the pigeons at the Chinese Grand Prix, when FIA official Nikolas Tombazis clearly suggested there was a possibility F1 could ditch the new 2026 power units while they decide on what to replace the current breed with in two to three years time. A number of questions have been raised over the appropriateness of trebling the electrical output on the 2026 monsters, meaning total output is now 50/50 hybrid and internal combustion engine (ICE).
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Drivers changing gear to make electricity
There’re fears that on certain circuits where the brakes of the cars play a limited role, that drivers will have to change down a gear on the long straights in order to merely generate enough electrical power to meet the criteria. Having the ICE act as merely a generator for electrical power does appear farcical and will facilitate the “Frankenstein” machines Christian horned predicted.
Horner has advocated a reduction in the power output from the hybrid, suggesting this would retain the original aims of the FIA engine working party whilst preventing such ludicrous situations noted above.
“Certainly, the progress with sustainable fuels has led to the view that maybe the engines could be simpler,” said the FIA’s man in charge of day to day operations, Nikolas Tombazis. ”The world economy does lead to views that maybe we should try to cut costs a bit more, and the current power units are way too expensive.”
Whilst the response in Shanghai was contained a variety of nostalgic repossess, the view of the team bosses on the whole was that the train had left the station, or as Horner described it as “ten past midnight and Cinderella has left the building.”
Alonso says “we’re in a different world”
Yet it is remarkable that such a senior figure at the FIA should even suggest retaining the current hybrids with a return to next zero V10’s in 2028. Toto Wolff believes this approach would not be possible anyway and the 2026 hybrids are now inevitable for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Audi have bought Sauber who are currently powered by Ferrari. Audi do not have a current specification hybrid to put in their car and so would lose their some of their global marketing presence whilst waiting for the new V10’s to come. Red Bull have no powertrain either to the current specification and Honda are leaving to partner with Aston Martin.
Of course these practical difficulties make retaining the current hybrids a non-starter but Fernando Alonso argues the future should be technology driven and not based upon romance of the past.
“We’re in a different world now. Technology has evolved and we now have incredibly efficient engines that use about one-third of the fuel we used to. We can’t just go against our time and our hybrid era. We cannot forget how efficient the cars are now compared to the past. This is something very positive that we have,” the Spaniard said.
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Hybrids set to be banned in Europe
Fernando is being a realist about the immediate future of F1, the current powertrains are impossible to continue with of Toto Wolff is to be believed, and of course Aston Martin are a Mercedes power unit customer. Yet the inevitable march towards a hybrid future for the world is not the future as the car manufacturers now full well.
UK and EU rules will ban the sale of new cars with this technology from 2030 and 2035 respectively. Then there’s the question of there 2 billion vehicles on the roads of the world which are internal combustion engines. A bio fuel future means a greener place for people to live investing in eye watering amounts to replace these vehicles.
As Tomazis says, hybrid is hugely expensive and the world is coming to terms with having to cut costs. Ditching the F1 hybrids in 2-3 years would slash customer team’s costs and lower the massive investment required to build an F1 engine which in turn would open the door to many more power unit manufacturers.
Gordon Murray leads the way
Of course maybe the Piranha club would prefer to keep the drawer bridge raised to prevent the likes of Cosworth or other competent engine manufacturers from joining the party.
In fact Cosworth have been spearheading internal combustion engine development in association with Gordon Murray, the designer of the Le Mans winning McLaren F1 car. According to Top Gear magazine, “The Cosworth-built 4.0-litre V12 is a masterpiece, not only the highest revving road car engine ever, but the fastest revving, able to gain 52,000rpm per second. Consider that for a moment. It’s bananas. The V12 drives the rear wheels through a six speed manual gearbox from F1 specialists Xtrac. So tractable is the engine that fifth gear is known as the ‘speed bumps to 186mph gear’.”
The efficiency of the engine is lauded industry wide and if one man’s vision can bring us this kind of technology, imagine what the thousands of F1 engineers could deliver.
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RBR to give Tsunoda a different car to Max
The age old troubles at Red Bull surround their inability to find a driver capable of living with the pace of quadruple Formula One champion, Max Verstappen. Daniel Ricciardo was the last Red Bull driver to beat the Dutchman in multiple seasons as Max now is handed his sixth team mate in less than eight seasons.
Sergio Perez fared well for his first three years alongside Verstappen, finishing in the drivers’ title race in P4, P3 and then giving the team their first 1-2 in their record breaking season of 2023.
Come the start of 2024, the decision to retain the Mexican driver looked to be a good one as he followed up his team mates wins in the opening two rounds with a second place. After five rounds of the year, Checo remained in P2 in the drivers’ championship some 27 points ahead of Lando Norris, who would eventually challenge Verstappen in the closing rounds of the year….READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
Its and It’s are two different things, as it’s OF and IF. This article and others are littered with spelling and grammar mistakes. How about some proofreading?