(Motorsport-Total.com) – After rumors before the start of the 2026 season that Mercedes and Red Bull had found a trick with the new Formula 1 engine, the two manufacturers are once again at the center of a possible gimmick. However, this time it is not about the compression ratio.
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Rather, The Race reports that Mercedes and Red Bull are said to have found another trick that provided an advantage of up to a few hundredths of a second during a fast qualifying lap – but has now been banned by the FIA.
Specifically, it concerns the battery. The regulations actually require that the available power must be reduced by 50 kilowatts every second once the battery is running low. This is intended to prevent the electric power from dropping suddenly from 100 to zero percent.
However, a trick allegedly allowed Mercedes and Red Bull to circumvent this reduction, which exists for safety reasons. Accordingly, it was possible to use the maximum power again at the end of a qualifying lap, even though the battery was almost empty.
The background is that the requirement for gradual reduction does not apply if the MGU-K must be switched off in an emergency. However, the rules do not clearly define under what circumstances exactly this shutdown is allowed.
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Therefore, it was established that the MGU-K may only be reactivated one minute after being switched off by the driver. For this reason, the trick was only used at the end of a qualifying lap, because the MGU-K was no longer needed afterwards anyway.
The procedure by Mercedes and Red Bull was therefore not illegal, but the trick led to potentially dangerous situations because the cars were very slow on the track after the MGU-K was switched off.
In addition, an alleged stop by Alexander Albon from the Mercedes customer team Williams during practice in Suzuka was also attributed to this trick. According to The Race, the FIA therefore decided to put a stop to the procedure for safety reasons.
Accordingly, switching off the MGU-K is still possible, but only if there is a verifiable problem. The 60-second rule for reactivation also remains in place.
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