Whilst Formula One took a break from racing due to the war in the middle east, the FIA were busy finding rule tweaks to tame the 2026 Frankenstein engines. Despite the FIA using few of their new energy management restriction powers in Miami, McLaren’s Andrea Stella believes the sport needs to go further and improve the hardware of the new engines.
The “tweaks” to the energy management regulations as they were described by F1’s CEO, were unanimously agreed following a frightening accident for Oliver Bearman in Japan. Closing speeds were too high as one car harvesting energy was caught by another deploying a boost of power from the battery.
Further, “super clipping” where the internal combustion engine is driving the rear wheels AND charging the battery was creating a farcical sight of cars slowing hundreds of metres before the braking point when travelling down the straights.
FIA recent rule changes to smooth out F1 power deployment
In an effort to smooth out the deployment of battery power, the FIA have given themselves the opportunity to change the following at race weekends where they see fit. Firstly by reducing the maximum amount of energy per lap that can be recovered from 8MG to 7MG.
This is designed to force the drivers to spend less time harvesting energy and more time driving flat out. The second major change was by increasing the allowed rate of charge from 250 kW to 350 kW again meaning less time spent harvesting and reducing the “super clipping” time by around half of its 8 seconds a lap.
The maximum boost from the hybrid was reduced to +150kW and the MGU-K maximum deployment of 350kW has been restricted to a much smaller part of the lap. Elsewhere it is now restricted to 250kW in an effort to stabilise the field spread and contraction.
Other items include the low power start mode, which detects a slow get away from a standing start and after 0.9 seconds allows electrical power to boost that of the internal combustion engine.
FIA decides when the rule changes will be applied
Not all of these new restrictions were deployed in Miami, which is seen as an energy rich circuit. This means the amount of energy available to recover under braking is significantly more than the average track layout. Big braking zones contribute to this and in Miami there are those in abundance.
To this end the reduction from 8 to 7MJ was not enforced, although there was some smoke and mirrors from the FIA who did not publish their criteria for energy management at the Miami International Autodrome.
The consensus from the drivers was that there was a mild improvement, yet the yo-yo racing remained – where one deploys full battery power to overtake another driver – then is re-passed as the other deploys their electrical boost of energy.
Never one to refrain from speaking his mind, McLaren’s team boss Andrea Stella believes further changes to the power unit regulations are necessary, but from a hardware perspective. He argues that bigger batteries are required along with an increase in the rate of fuel flow to the internal combustion engine and larger fuel tanks.
McLaren boss calls for urgent hardware F1 engine changes
“Hardware adjustments to the power unit in order to improve Formula 1 in general, I personally think are required,” Stella said in his press conference. “They will have to do realistically with the fuel flow to increase the power from the internal combustion engine. I think they might have to do with harvesting more power than the power you actually deploy, because you spend much more time deploying electrical power, rather than harvesting it.
“This can be rebalanced by harvesting to a larger power than we do today. From 350kW, can we go to 400kW, can we go to 450kW? And then I think we just need bigger batteries,” added the McLaren boss. Yet it appears that after years of development, the F1 engine manufacturers are reluctant to change the architecture of their engines even for 2027.
It would require a super-majority of all but one of the manufacturers to agree to such a change in time for 2027 but clearly Stella believes more than one is resistant to such a change.
“From the perspective of power unit manufacturers, I see this is difficult for 2027 because the implication for the battery size and the implication for coping with the higher fuel flow, they are normally a longer lead time than the time available to go into the 2027 season,” added Stella.
Mercedes boss defiant over F1 engine changes
That said he believes the move is absolutely necessary and sets a timeline for the matter to be resolved by August this season. “I would urge that possibly this conversation needs to be finalised before the summer break to be in time to do it for 2028,” he concluded.
Yet one of the players required to agree to such changes believes them to be less urgent than Andrea Stella. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claimed after the Miami Grand Prix: “Whoever talks about changing engine regs in the short term should question his way of assessing Formula 1 at that stage. A spectacular race. Fight for the lead, fight in the midfield. And it’s splendid.” Only that was to be expected given Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli won the race.
In defence of his Mercedes engine supplier, Alpine boss Steve Nielsen suggested: “Now… More fuel means bigger a fuel tank, means a different chassis. And not every team will be planning to make a new chassis for next year, because with the budget cap you spend your money where the most performance is.”
Yet this is hardly the point given were the rules to be changed, each team would be directed in spending resources in a similar fashion – on the chassis. Further, Ferrari abandoned their 2025 in season development around this time, to focus on the 2026 chassis – so there’s plenty of tie for the teams to react.
F1 teams have time to design new chassis
Despite this fact, Nielson believes the timelines are too short. “We’ve seen a lot of regulation changes in the last few weeks. I hope it calms down a bit. But our ability to react will be stretched if we start getting major changes in the next few months, for next year.”
The regulation changes have not been particularly traumatic with F1’s CEO repeatedly referring to them as “tweaks.” Yes, it will take the teams a few outings to optimise their energy management under the new rules, but this kind of challenges engage the teams engineers, whose role is to solve these conundrums.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem provided some hope in Miami that going forward Formula One will not be held to ransom by the manufacturers for the sport’s next era of power units. “It’s coming. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of time,” he told Reuters ahead of Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.
“In 2031, the V8, the FIA will have the power to do it, without any votes from the PUMs [Power Unit Manufacturers]. That’s the regulations. But we want to bring it one year earlier, which everyone now is asking for,” Ben Sulayem revealed.
New V8’s are definitely coming says FIA president
“You get the sound, less complexity, lightweight,” Ben Sulayem said of incoming V8’s. “You will hear about it very soon and it will be with a very, very minor electrification. I’m positive, they [power unit manufacturers] want it to happen. But let’s say the manufacturers don’t approve it [for 2030]. The next year, it will happen. In 2031 its done anyway. It will be done. V8 is coming.”
Yet the message has not made it through to all the manufacturers, given subsequent comments from Toto Wolff. “From a Mercedes standpoint, we are open to new engine regulations,” said Wolff the Miami race. “We love V8s, it has only great memories, and from our perspective, it’s a pure Mercedes engine, it revs high.”
Promising? Not quite. In true Pavlovian fashion, Wolff then continued: “But how do we give it enough energy from the battery side to not lose connection to the real world? Because if we swing 100% combustion, it might be looking a bit ridiculous in 2031 or 2030.”
Wolff persists with hybrid argument
Once again Wolff sees F1 from the perspective of a road car manufacturers test laboratory, again perpetuating the mantra that hybrid is the future of the family vehicle. “We need to consider that, make it simpler and make it a mega engine. Maybe we can extract 800 horsepower out of the ICE [Internal Combustion Engine] and put 400 on top of it, or more, in terms of electric energy.”
So he’s suggesting a 2/3rds – 1/3rd split in the power source in favour of the combustion engine, something Christian Horner called for way back in 2023. Whilst F1 is blessed with its current line up of manufacturers, a simpler V8 F1 engine could easily be constructed by specialists like Cosworth.
Currently even were they to fork out up to the current engine cost cap of $190m, the research and development for the 2026 engines has stretched for some manufacturers close to $1bn. Only the big global auto manufacturers can afford to play that game.
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
