Following the F1 rules tweak which was implemented for the Miami Grand Prix, the race schedule took the circus to Canada, Monaco, Barcelona, and Austria before arriving at Silverstone for the oldest F1 event remaining. Much of the noise over the heavily criticized 2026 F1 engines had died down prior to the British Grand Prix, but that was to change quickly.
Arriving at Silverstone, the paddock was braced for another round of criticism regarding the extreme nature of the all-new hybrid powertrains. Yet the drivers and teams had done their preparation relatively well, and so initially, the problems went largely unnoticed.
The Realities of Battery Depletion on the Hangar Straight
Yet in the Grand Prix, George Russell sailed past Lewis Hamilton on the Hangar Straight as though his fellow British driver were standing waiting for a bus. Hamilton’s Ferrari had run out of electrical power due to him defending earlier in the lap from the Mercedes driver.
There were many noticeable scenarios where one car was starved of electrical energy while another was powering on using a burst of hybrid power. Yet the debacle of the safety car finish overshadowed much of the post-race analysis, which may have instead returned to discussing the engines.
Max Verstappen had warned that Silverstone would be one of the worst circuits for the new V6 hybrids. “Silverstone, I love the track, but I did a few laps on the simulator and I just started laughing,” Verstappen said. “It felt like a different track, to be honest. You barely have battery around the lap.”
This means the drivers were pretty much just driving flat out on their internal combustion engine, minimizing the challenge of iconic corners like Stowe and Copse. Next up is the Belgian Grand Prix at the historic Spa-Francorchamps, and the grid’s F1 elder statesman is now warning it will be worse than Silverstone.
One Button to Overtake: Alonso’s Scathing Sprint Verdict
Fernando Alonso ridiculed the lack of skill required from the drivers to make an overtake with the current hybrid engines.In the Silverstone Sprint, despite Hamilton’s best efforts again, Kimi Antonelli deployed his battery and sailed past the seven-time champion with ease to win the shorter race format.
“You don’t need to outbrake anyone, you don’t need to overtake on the outside, you don’t need to take any risk. Just press one button and you overtake if you have a better power unit than the car in front.”
Downgrading the Icons: Sainz and Hamilton Sound the Alarm
Williams driver Carlos Sainz was in full agreement with Verstappen and Alonso, bemoaning the taming of the high-speed, iconic Northamptonshire circuit. Despite the tweaks made for Miami in battery deployment and harvesting rules, the Spaniard believes for 2026, F1 is doomed in this regard.
“It was just like a clear sign and understanding that whatever we came up with for this year is not good enough. That’s why the regs change was necessary for next year, because a great racetrack like this being a bit, not spoiled, but downgraded because of the way you do an engine, is not what F1 should be about.”
“You basically run out of energy and power very quickly into the high speed, and because there’s a combination of very high-speed corners, you don’t harvest any battery…” Sainz went on to call out the shocking nature of the “yo-yo racing” which the current engines encourage, with one car passing another and then being re-overtaken as they run out of battery power.
Lewis Hamilton, who has an all-time record number of wins at a single circuit at Silverstone, described driving the circuit this year as a “completely different track.” Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc added, “most of the drivers feel probably a bit sad,” while Haas F1 pilot Esteban Ocon was candid: “Not as rewarding and challenging.”
First-Lap Carnage and Energy Management at Spa
And it’s not just the racing that’s been significantly affected by the all-new hybrid engines, as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri blamed his first-lap incident on the massive amounts of battery power available one minute then gone the next.
As the lights went out, the Aussie was fighting the Racing Bulls teammates for position when he found himself caught in the middle of the two, damaged his front wing, and was forced to pit for a new one straight away.
“Lap one on these kinds of circuits is just carnage. It’s almost like a multi-class race start,” he explained. “I was trying to overtake Lindblad, and it seemed like I had more power than him. Lawson then passed me and seemed like he had even more power than me.”
“It’s just a mess. You’re trying to judge your speed to the car in front of you, look at the car behind you, but to be honest, I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more often,” concluded a bemused McLaren driver.
The Nightmare of Spa Awaits
With no Sprint scheduled for Spa, the teams and drivers will have more time in the three practice sessions to map out their energy management in more detail. Yet the sad fact stated by Alonso remains true: the better a car’s battery, the easier it is for that driver to overtake another whose battery is inferior.
F1 is tweaking the hardware requirements for 2027, where the internal combustion engine will have more power than its hybrid partner. Yet it won’t be until 2028 when the split is 60/40, which Max Verstappen described as “the minimum” to cut out a significant part of the farcical show we are now watching.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. 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.
