F1 2026 – Syndication Server

Russell fired up by Mercedes 2026 power unit prospects

Mercedes’ 2026 Formula 1 power unit development is “looking really promising” as it builds on the knowledge gleaned from other projects, according to George Russell. The next set of power unit regulations will see a greater reliance on battery …

Mercedes’ 2026 Formula 1 power unit development is “looking really promising” as it builds on the knowledge gleaned from other projects, according to George Russell.

The next set of power unit regulations will see a greater reliance on battery power, with 350kW of power available from the battery and a reduction to around 400kW from the ICE that will be powered by a 100% sustainable fuel. Alongside the removal of the MGU-H it’s a significant change that has also impacted the new technical regulations for 2026, and Russell confirmed the growing confidence in the work being done by Mercedes.

“I think the PU regs are exciting and the manufacturers are going to take strides over these years,” Russell said. “We’ve already seen it at Mercedes with the progress we’re making and it’s looking really promising at the moment. It’s the same with the fuel, with [fuel supplier] Petronas and the experience the team had in Formula E. Even the hypercar project that the team did eight years ago, not knowing eight years ago that it was going to be beneficial for the future. That’s really interesting.”

Russell does have some reservations, though, about how quick the cars will be in a straight line at some tracks, due to active aerodynamics reducing drag and increasing top speeds.

“I think the cars are going to take quite a big turn in how they perform. They are going to be exceptionally quick in the straights, 360 kph (224 mph) probably at most tracks, which is pretty impressive,” he said. “But then the safety needs to be probably improved, because having a crash at 360 or 370 kph (230 mph) is going to pretty crazy; but then the cornering speeds are going to be massively reduced.

“I’m sure the teams will find a way to bring that closer to where we’ve been recently, but from a driving standpoint you want the fastest cars — you want to feel like you are in a fighter jet and in 2020 and 2021, that’s how it felt. Now these cars are getting very quick again in this current era and I’m sure next year they are even going to be battling the 2020 lap times that we were seeing, so it would be a shame to lose some of the performance of the car.

“But, on the flip side, it will improve the racing if there is less downforce and less dirty air. So to conclude all of that, you can’t have it all and you’ve got to choose your battles.”

Despite his reservations about safety at top speeds with lower grip levels, Russell says it’s a concern that the FIA is currently working on after feedback prior to the regulations being announced.

“I think when it comes to safety, unfortunately, history has told us that incidents need to happen before changes are made. Everybody needs to do a really thorough job ahead of these regulations, because the cars are going to be so quick and have so little downforce on the straights that it’s almost going to feel like you are floating and flying through the air.

“If you can imagine in a race where it starts raining and you are on slick tires doing 250 on a street circuit, that’s going to be a bit of a sketchy place to be. These are questions that need to be answered, and to be fair to the FIA, they are fully aware of this and on top of this and looking at all of the possible scenarios of what could happen.

“Time will tell, but the cars are already bloody fast as they are and where are we going to stop? Are we going to get up to 400 kph (249 mph)? Do the fans really need or want to see that, and what is it that we really want to achieve?

“For me, it’s good racing. I don’t really mind how quick the cars are around the track, you want to have good racing, hard racing and strong competition, ideally between every team and every driver.”

Verstappen notes ‘really good progress’ on 2026 regulations but drivers largely split

Max Verstappen says the FIA and Formula 1 have made “really good progress” on the 2026 regulations but is among many drivers reserving judgment about such a radical change. On Thursday the FIA released images of how it expects the 2026 car to look …

Max Verstappen says the FIA and Formula 1 have made “really good progress” on the 2026 regulations but is among many drivers reserving judgment about such a radical change.

On Thursday the FIA released images of how it expects the 2026 car to look alongside a number of technical regulation updates ahead of their ratification later this month. The new power units — that feature more reliance on electrical energy and a 100% sustainable fuel — had drawn criticism last year due to a potential power loss when deployment ran out on some straights, but Verstappen says there have been gains made since.

“I’ve seen a lot of simulation,” Verstappen said. “It’s not like it suddenly came out now and now we start developing, it’s something that has been around and fine-tuned of course. And I have to say from the first time I saw it to the latest updates that I’ve seen, I think they made really good progress on how the engine is working with the chassis and the relationship on the straights and stuff.

“Some tracks I think will be better than others, naturally, when you are more energy-limited, but that’s something that we have to deal with.”

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On the whole, however, Verstappen is unsure how the slightly lighter and smaller cars will perform from a racing perspective, with active aerodynamics set to be introduced.

“To be honest I’m quite in the middle,” he said. “New rules are new rules, I do think that it’s a bit of a consequence of the engine as well. They say it’s 50:50 between engine and battery, but it’s not really like that, so that’s why we need the active aero on the straight to reduce the drag — to make it more sustainable to do a proper lap, otherwise you run out of battery. Which I think was a problem that they found out.

“Of course, the longer you keep the regulations the same the closer it gets between the teams. So 2026 will probably be quite a bit of a reset, not only from the car performance side but also the engine side. People can hit the regulations well and have a big advantage on the engine, maybe; this is something of course that we don’t know at the moment but some people probably feel more confident about that than the others.

“But on the other hand F1 wanted to attract new manufacturers as well and you needed a rule change for that to happen. We’ll see. I’m very positively surprised when I jump in the real car and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is amazing!’ I don’t know, but at the moment I’m in the middle. We drive what we get.”

Verstappen was also unsure the planned 30kg weight reduction would be achievable given current limits, but stated it was too small a change to make a significant difference, something Lewis Hamilton agreed with.

“I mean, it’s only 30 kilos, so it’s going in the right direction, but it’s still heavy,” Hamilton said. “I’ve spoken to some drivers who have driven it on the simulator — I haven’t — but they said it’s pretty slow. So we will see whether it’s actually the right direction or not.

“But I think in terms of sustainability, particularly on the power unit side, I think that’s a really bold step and I think it’s going in the right direction. We’ve just got to make sure the cars are efficient, fast, and a natural step forward, and actually racing is improved.”

Both Hamilton and Verstappen referenced the risk of the field being spread out again under new regulations, while Oscar Piastri highlighted how close the front-runners are getting the longer the rules stay the same.

“I think every time the regs have changed, it’s led to a pretty big spread, especially with engines — 2014 being the last time with that and kicking off a really long period of dominance,” Piastri said. “And I think we’ve seen even with these regs, we’re only just starting to catch up to Red Bull, week in, week out, now.

“I think we have an important place in society to be at the forefront of technology and innovation, and that’s always what F1’s been about in some ways. I guess you could argue that sometimes that does come at the cost of the racing, which is always a shame.

“I think both points are kind of separate, really. I wouldn’t be surprised if the teams sort of separate a bit more in 2026, both with different aero regs and especially the engine regs. There’s a very big chance, I would say, that the teams are going to be more spread out than what they are now.”

One of the other drivers who has tested the new rules out in a simulator is Nico Hulkenberg, who believes they will lead to a very significant change to the way the cars handle, but suggested further improvements can be made before the final aerodynamic regulations are released for development at the start of 2025.

“It’s certainly quite different,” Hulkenberg said. “Some interesting areas and aspects. I think some that still need a bit further work. Like Lewis said, I think the weight reduction is good, but then 30 kilos… It’s not the world.

“It looks like a lot less downforce, especially high-speed corners. It will be quite a different scenario and characteristic to now. So there is going to be definitely a drastic change. And change… you’re not always so open to it. But we’ll see what happens between now and in the one and a half years, if there might be some small adjustments or not with what’s going on.”

FIA’s Tombazis says 2026 F1 rules address 2022 errors

The new 2026 technical regulations will address aspects the FIA got wrong with the 2022 cars (pictured above in prototype form at its 2021 launch), according to its single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis. The governing body has released its planned …

The new 2026 technical regulations will address aspects the FIA got wrong with the 2022 cars (pictured above in prototype form at its 2021 launch), according to its single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis.

The governing body has released its planned technical regulations for 2026 that will be ratified at the end of this month, confirming active aerodynamics as part of a slightly smaller and lighter car design. There are also changes to the floor regulations and diffuser impact to try and remove the need for cars to be run as low and stiff as the current ones, that saw the re-introduction of ground effect in 2022.

“A significant part of these regulations has involved thinking about the fans,” Tombazis said. “We believe we made a step towards closer racing in 2022, but there were also things we got wrong and we’re trying to get it completely right now.

“We believe the racing will be much more exciting and much closer between cars. We expect cars to be still very challenging to drive; there will be a bit less downforce on the cars, there will be a few more things to look after for the drivers. And hopefully that, together with the closer racing, will always keep it a drivers’ championship and a big challenge for these very intelligent and talented individuals.”

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One of the targets of the 2022 regulations was to provide a closer grid due to limitations in aerodynamic development and the introduction of a cost cap, but Red Bull has dominated the sport in recent years.

While convergence is now being seen, Tombazis also believes that there is a better chance of more than one team fighting at the front from 2026 because the cost cap has been in place for a longer time, leading to a leveling of the playing field that hadn’t taken effect two years ago.

“We don’t set out to do regulations with a pecking order in mind — we can never predict who will get it right and who will not,” he said. “But when there are big changes — and these are big changes — we do expect a bit of a reshuffle. We can’t predict the nature of that reshuffle but it is natural to expect one.

“This is the second set of regulations where teams will be developing a car under the cost cap. And that is an opportunity for some of the smaller teams to catch up. The bigger teams can’t just spend irrationally and in all possible directions. All of the teams will need to prioritize and decide on where to put the effort.”

Tombazis noted that teams will also not be able to write off next season completely to focus on 2026, with restrictions on when they car do certain work on the new regulations.

“There are some limitations in the regulations about when teams can develop. For example, teams cannot start any aerodynamic development until 1 January, 2025. That’s to stop certain teams getting, let’s say, a very early start and maybe an unfair advantage. But on the mechanical side, the chassis, the structures, everything, teams will pretty much start as soon as these regulations are confirmed.”

FIA unveils ‘nimble car’ details of 2026 F1 regulations

The FIA has unveiled a major update in the 2026 Formula 1 technical regulations with a “nimble car” concept aimed at producing smaller, lighter machinery. The power unit regulations for 2026 were confirmed two seasons ago and helped attract new …

The FIA has unveiled a major update in the 2026 Formula 1 technical regulations with a “nimble car” concept aimed at producing smaller, lighter machinery.

The power unit regulations for 2026 were confirmed two seasons ago and helped attract new manufacturers into the sport, but the actual technical regulations for the chassis and aerodynamics have remained a work in progress. That’s partly due to the FIA wanting to adapt them to the demands of the power units — featuring a nearly 50:50 split of internal combustion and electrical propulsion — and has led to a number of radical solutions.

The cars are intended to have a minimum weight some 30kg lighter than the current 798kg (1759 lbs), while a shorter wheelbase — down from 3600mm to 3400mm — and reduction in width by 100mm are also key components in what the FIA calls its “nimble car” concept. The width of the tires has also been reduced by 25mm at the front and 30mm at the rear.

Active aerodynamics will see both the front and rear wings changing from high downforce settings — known as Z-mode — for corners, to a low drag configuration — X-mode — for the straights. That’s to make more efficient use of the greater electrical energy from the power unit, with 350kw of power available from the battery and a reduction to around 400kw from the ICE that will be powered by a 100% sustainable fuel.

As the aerodynamics are set to be available to all drivers on every lap, in place of DRS the FIA is also introducing a “manual override” feature that will deliver maximum electrical energy deployment at higher speeds for a following car.

The FIA also says cars will feature a partially flat floor and lower-powered diffuser “which will reduce the ground effect and reduce the reliance of the cars on ultra-stiff and low setups.”

The new technical regulations are set to be ratified by the World Motor Sport Council on June 28, although teams are not allowed to work on aerodynamic development — with those rules still to be refined — until Jan. 1, 2025.

“Today, the FIA is defining a hugely exciting future for the pinnacle of motorsport with the launch of a comprehensive new set of regulations for the 2026 FIA Formula 1 championship and beyond,” FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said. “Following the publication of 2026 power unit regulations two years ago we have taken the opportunity to redefine the chassis regulations to match the energy requirement of the new power units. Collaborating with our partners at Formula 1 and with the assistance of the sport’s 10 teams and all our stakeholders this represents a unique revision that will ensure our premier championship is even more relevant to what is happening in the world.

“The power unit regulations have already resulted in a record number of PU manufacturers committing to the sport. And now, in tandem with chassis regulations that provide for lighter, more agile cars featuring innovative aerodynamic solutions, we have created a set of regulations designed to not only improve racing but also to make the championship even more attractive to PU manufacturers, OEMs and existing competitors.

“The key features of the 2026 F1 regulations are advanced sustainability technology and safety. Our aim, together with Formula 1, was to produce a car that was right for the future of the sport’s elite category. We believe we have achieved that goal.”

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F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali agrees with Ben Sulayem that all key stakeholders have worked well together on the new regulations, that will again see all teams designing new cars under a cost cap.

“These regulations mark a significant moment in the future of our sport as we look forward to a new generation of car and power unit that aims to give our fans closer and exciting racing,” Domenicali said.

“The new sustainably fueled hybrid power unit presents a huge opportunity for the global automotive industry — the drop in fuel has the potential to be used by cars around the world and dramatically cut emissions. Its potential is one of the key reasons why we will have a record number of engine suppliers in Formula 1 in 2026.

“We enter this new regulatory cycle with the sport in the strongest position it has ever been, and I am confident that the work done by the FIA to create these regulations will further strengthen the position of the sport around the world.”