Having watched Formula One for over 40 years, I don’t remember the sport getting itself into such a mess as it has with the all new 2026 regulations. Of course there were the tragedies which saw the death of Ayrton Senna and Jules Bianchi together with other one off farcical situations like the 2005 US Grand Prix where just six cars started the race.
Other silly ideas included aggregate qualifying back in 2005 where drivers ran one lap on Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday and the grid was set by their total of the two runs. In 2016, elimination qualifying was tried, where the cars went out all together and every 90 seconds the slowest was eliminated.
Both formats lasted a handful of race weekends before being dropped. There are a number of other ‘unusual’ efforts made by the FIA which led to driver boycott in Imola in 1982 together with the two lap race in Belgium in 2021 which saw George Russell claim his first podium in a Williams F1 car.
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FIA desperate to engage manufacturers
Yet never has the FIA conspired to create a set of technical and sporting regulations which are so widely hated by drivers and fans alike. As much as various broadcasters have made light of the matter, comparing the 2026 F1 racing to Mario Kart, the current F1 spectacle is currently a debacle with drivers having to go slower to ultimately set a faster lap time and with terrifying closing speeds as the mega boost from the electrical power source runs dry.
Lessons must be learned and as early as 2024, F1 supremo Stefano Domenicali was talking down the all new 2026 era of F1 racing. In an interview with motorsport.com he hinted the reason the new regulations had been framed as they were was due to F1’s desperation to engage with more engine manufacturers.
Having fallen out with Renault at the last big regulation cycle in 2014, Red Bull faced the possibility of having no power unit supplier. Mercedes and Ferrari refused to provide such a rival with their powertrains whilst Honda the only other available was barely delivering GP2 kind of speeds.
The spectre of this disastrous scenario drove the FIA into engaging more manufacturers to join the sport. The problem was they allowed the lunatics to take over the asylum. When the original FIA working party was setup to discuss the future of F1 power, the European auto manufacturers were obsessed with hybrid as they future. And the decision was taken as early as 2018 that this would be the primary architecture of the new engines then planned for 2021.
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Porsche – who never made it, Audi and Mercedes all pressed the idea with their usual threats of refusing to play ball if F1 was not road car relevant. Ferrai were more circumspect and along with Red Bull suggested at various times a return to simpler V8/V10 power trains with an electrical boost would deliver better racing.
As Domenicali made clear in August 2024, “these 2026 technical regulations was, at the specific moment the decision was taken, related to a need for [more] manufacturers to be involved in F1, with a different kind of technology that would need to be used. I do believe that is really fundamental and crucial [to understand].”
Almost a year to the day later, Domenicali again responded to questions from the Race podcast over the future of F1 power not being hybrid. “Sustainable fuel, [and a] V8, I think is great,” he said before suggesting the all new 2026 powertrains were a “political decision” and were that being made now, a different course of action would ensue. The FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has also talked about the future of F1 being V8 internal combustion engine based and Christian Horner predicted the electrical farce currently on show as early as the summer of 2023 hen he described the incoming all new cars as “Frankenstein monsters.”
Horner claimed that having a 50% contribution from the electrical hybrid was too high and that “cars would be merely using their internal combustion engines at times to generate battery power.” This has indeed come to pass two and a half years on and is known as the phenomena ‘super clipping.’
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Increasing fuel flow rates area non-starter for 2026
How to fix the problem created by the manufacturers and allowed by the Lilly livered FIA officials desperate for them to sign on the dotted line? A number of solutions have been proposed which include allowing the cars to harvest more energy so they are less likely to run out of electrical power and to increase the fuel flow of the internal combustion engine so it can drive the car for longer whilst also creating battery charge.
The second solution is a non-start given it cold include various manufacturers having to alter the architecture of their combustion engines. This may be possible for 2027, but is unfair and some and will be resisted to the nth degree too.
Some teams could be badly affected too, were their fuel cell too small to take the additional fuel required. This could involve a complete revamp of their aero package, something very expensive and not the work of a moment.
Altering fuel flow rates is a non starter for both these reasons this season. Allowing the cars to harvest more energy in a single charging session is another proposal. The battery power is rated at 350kw, yet the maximum harvesting allowance for any one charge is presently just 250kw. Whilst on the face of it this seems a plausible solution, but in reality it could exacerbate the problem.
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Time for F1 to go back to the future
More electrical power available more of the lap will merely add to the potential for a massive accident where the closing speeds of two cars are in excess of 50kph. We all saw the Oli Bearman incident in Japan. Even if Colapinto’s car had at some point harvested at a rate of 350kw, there’s not guarantee he wouldn’t have been out of charge at the point on the circuit where Bearman caught him unawares.
Much has been written about how reducing the total amount of electrical charge from 350kw to maybe just 200kw wold lead to slower lap times. Yes of course it would, probably around 2 seconds a lap, but is that really noticeable by the fans either at the circuit or one TV?
The problem with this solution is it flies oil the face of everything Mercedes, Audi, Porsche and even latterly Honda thought they could engineer. Ultimately that means egg on their collective faces and a moment for Christian Horner to gloat at Toto Wolff.
200kw of charge is sensible and would prevent the frighting closing speeds seen in Melbourne and Japan. Yet this would be an uplift from 120kw in 2025 – hardly the world’s most radical re-engineering of the previous hybrids. And it certainly didn’t required the vast cost and expense the manufacturers have gone to.
Its time for F1 to go back to the future and admit they collectively all got it badly wrong.
NEXT ARTICLE: Red Bull boss under pressure from Austria as chassis to blame, not the engine
Last Updated on March 31 2026, 11:38 am
Laurent Mekies arrived at Red Bull Racing in the middle of the summer of 2026 following the sacking of Christian Horner. Within three races he was the golden boy, apparently turning around the team’s Formula One fortunes in a jiffy, with Max Verstappen making the podium in every race from Zandvoort to Abu Dhabi.
The Dutch ace close down a gap of over a 100 points to fall short of the drivers title by just 14 come the curtain falling on the year. Yet the real test of the French engineer’s leadership is now under way, as Red Bull are languishing down in sixth place after just three race weekends this season.
It was the “Monza floor” which was credited with the revival of the lack lustre RB21 which was fitted to the car for the first time three races after Horner’s departure. Yet the time lag for the development of such a part means it was well under way whilst Horner remained in charge…. CONTINUE READING
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