F1 | Motors 2026: is an under-the-table war breaking out?

The fuel tank of current ground effect single-seaters has a maximum capacity of 110 kg. There are several world championship circuits where it is possible to race the distance of a Grand Prix with a fuel quantity of less than 100 kg. Starting a race with at least 10 kg less is equivalent to reducing tire wear and, above all, it means having a performance advantage that can be worth around three tenths in lap time. The search for power unit efficiency has been a key feature of current PUs.

In 2026 the criteria will be profoundly changed with the legislator's desire to equalize the distribution of energy between the internal combustion engine and the hybrid: on paper we will have 6 turbo cylinders of 400 kW (535 HP) in spite of the current units capable of over 700 horsepower, while the hybrid will go from the current 150 kW to 350 kW (480 HP) for an estimated total of 985 HP compared to 1,050 today.

With the new power units, without the MGU-H abolished by regulation, the legislator's objective was not so much the search for maximum power, but rather efficiency, also aimed at reducing consumption.

The intention was to limit the petrol tank to just 75kg, reducing the available fuel by a third, in an attempt to make sense of reducing consumption with zero-emission fuels such as e-fuel and bio-fuel. The impact of the hybrid on performance had to be decisive, to change the paradigm with which a modern racing power unit is evaluated.

It has clearly emerged that the electric car, as it was conceived, does not have the capacity to ensure the energy to cover an entire lap of the track, so in the last reading of the rules, the FIA ​​introduced a series of rules that tends to reduce the contribution of the MGU-K as the speed increases, to ensure that the power is delivered during acceleration, i.e. when exiting the bends and not at the end of the straights, to prevent the Manufacturers from being able to use those situations the thermal engine to recharge the batteries.

What's the problem? If the availability of power in certain phases of a lap were not optimized by regulation, we could find ourselves faced with a single-seater capable of almost a thousand horsepower and the other, with zero electrical energy, forced to make do with only the 535 hp of the combustion engine. It is clear that this scenario could have been very dangerous due to the difference in performance on the track, as well as limiting the driver's abilities.

At first there were those who thought of using the 6 cylinder to recharge the hybrid on the straights, but even in this case we would have found ourselves with a disparity in performance between those who had electric power and those who didn't. There were those who even floated the hypothesis that you should also shift down a gear to have faster charging. Madness in antithesis to the philosophy that characterizes F1.

The FIA, therefore, is studying the introduction of algorithms that allow the use of power units to be managed at a regulatory level, to optimize the use of energy and avoid hybrid powertrains with too different performances at the starting line of the 2026 season. .

Starting from these assumptions we understand why the engine regulations are constantly evolving, with the definition of single-seaters still lacking. Smaller, lighter cars with less downforce are envisioned, with the ambition of using mobile aerodynamics to correct any power deficiencies of the power units. Initially we wanted to design cars that were less dependent on aerodynamics like those of today, but since it is not possible to find an effective drop point we shouldn't be surprised if we hear about double DRS to be applied not only to the rear wing, but also to the front one, or “push to pass” which in F1 will be called “override” so as not to copy something existing in IndyCar.

The FIA ​​will present its single-seater idea to the technical commission on 11 April (remember that the F1 Commission is no longer entitled to legislate on the 2026 rules because the Concorde Agreement expires at the end of 2025 and the drafting of the rules is in the hands of the Federation International), but there is also an underground battle to define those “details” of the regulation that could revolutionize the concept of the next power units.

The intention would be to increase the capacity of the tank to give manufacturers greater freedom to balance the missing energy with fuel. According to rumors, Ferrari could be the most advanced in the development of the minimum consumption engine. Evidently Cavallino's unity worries their opponents. How many kilos of petrol could be found for 2026?