Work on the development of the new generation of power units continues at an intense pace, despite the more than two-year wait before the new debut. “Having 1000 horsepower won’t matter, but rather who gets there first”, Mattia Binotto commented last season. Thirteen months have passed since the approval of the first basis of the new regulations, on which the manufacturers are already working. However, there are some outstanding points, including a standard measurement methodology to certify the competitiveness of individual power units.
The Alpine case
In July the case of the Alpine power unit exploded. As far as the 2022 engine is concerned, the episode constitutes anyway a potential precedent for the 2026 regulations. The French manufacturer in fact reports a power delay from its rivals of around 30 horsepower, making the request to be able to make extra developments to remedy this. The debate offers a preview of a central topic in the upcoming regulations. In fact, the 2026 regulation provides that, if a power delay of more than 3% is measured from the best power unit of the lot, the engineer in question will be granted greater development opportunities.
The risk is that everything becomes a source of discord on the actual performance delay. Already now the case of the PU Alpine does not make everyone agree, given that the competition believes that the delay of the Renault engine is less than that complained about. “Our engineers don’t see the same numbers,” commented Vasseur before the summer break. To the words of the Team Principal are now added those of Enrico Gualtieri, technical director of the Ferrari power unit area: “It’s difficult for us. Our analyzes cannot take into account all the data available to the FIA. We can only do general analyses, hence we don’t see that much difference in performancethe”.
Standard measures
The debate on the Alpine PU highlights the need for 2026 to have measurement standards defined a priori, capable of avoiding potential disagreements. “This will be one of the refinements to be made”, comments Gualtieri. “In the new regulation there is a part to identify development opportunities after someone puts a power unit on the track. This is in case a higher than average power delay is identified. But it is a part that still needs to be refined even in regulation, to have a robust and shared method which we can discuss.”
The extra development opportunities arise from the desire of the FIA and Formula 1 to avoid large performance disparities, such as those encountered at the debut of the hybrid power units in 2014, which would be detrimental to the spectacle. The idea is that of a balance to be achieved by offering the pursuers greater possibilities of intervention, rejecting the hypothesis of artificially braking the most competitive engines. “All the elements to set up are there a process that is not a BoP”, Gualtieri’s thoughts. A thought in agreement with that of Toto Wolff, who has repeated several times that a Balance of Performance would be a catastrophe, considering it the beginning of the end for Formula 1.
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