(Motorsport-Total.com) – While it is hoped that the adjustments agreed between the FIA and Formula 1 teams for Miami will mitigate some of the more problematic aspects of the 2026 regulations, the door for potential hardware changes to the new power units is not yet closed.
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The reduction in energy recovery and the expansion of the so-called Super-Clipping to 350 kW should minimize some of the visually unusual characteristics of the 2026 cars: the so-called lift and coast should occur less frequently, and the speed drop at the end of the straights will also be reduced.
Data records available to Motorsport-Total.com show that although there is still some drop in top speed at the end of long straights, the speed curves in most braking zones after short to medium acceleration phases should return to a more conventional level.
While simulations clarify that these changes should address some of the criticisms and restore drivers’ ability to influence qualifying beyond merely choosing the right deployment areas for the additional energy, the actual effect will only become clear after the races in Miami and Montreal.
More flow, larger batteries?
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explains that a “more substantial” improvement would likely require changes to the hardware of the 2026 powertrain. He suggests increased battery capacity or higher fuel flow for the internal combustion engine to boost the car’s mechanical performance.
Nevertheless, he warns that this is probably not an option for the current season – even if discussions about how to improve the current engine formula are already underway.
“I think if the FIA gave complete freedom in the use of the power unit, or if we had stayed within the regulations of the first three races, teams would use this to make the car as fast as possible in terms of lap time,” says Stella.
“Lap time, with such an objective, does not necessarily take into account aspects of natural driving – i.e., driving at the limit in qualifying or not having too large speed differences when two cars are fighting each other in the race.”
“I think these adjustments are necessary to ensure that teams use the power unit in a way that better achieves goals such as driving at the limit and reducing speed differences in the race,” Stella says.
“To achieve a significant improvement, where, for example, we fix the energy deficit or correct the fact that in high-speed corners you sometimes have hardly any delay between the braking point and the speed in the middle of the corner, it might be necessary to address the hardware.”
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“However, once you change the hardware, for example, battery capacity or the fuel flow of the internal combustion engine, that requires more time than just the span between two races – and possibly even more time than from one season to the next.”
“Discussions are definitely already taking place about how the hardware can be fundamentally improved. The goal is for the regulations to offer more scope to meet the various demands for spectacle and entertainment, but also to ensure that drivers can drive in the traditional sense, pushing the car to its limit.”
Tactical games like before
McLaren’s Performance Engineering Director, Mark Temple, adds that even with the Miami adjustments, there will still be instances where drivers will have to adopt a slightly counter-intuitive approach on tracks with “energy deficit.”
However, he adds that this is not necessarily different from fuel saving during races in the previous history of Formula 1. He feels that the most serious weaknesses of the 2026 technical regulations might have been addressed by the recently announced changes.
“I think some aspects of driving with the new PUs will remain because it’s still a formula where energy is scarce – perhaps that’s too strong a word – but it’s a formula where you want to use the available energy in the most efficient places,” says Temple.
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“It’s somewhat different from previous years where you could ignore that and not worry about the power unit and the available energy. That said, in the previous regulations, we had situations where fuel management was a very significant part of driving – in some cases even more so than we’ve seen with electrical energy management.”
“In the last years of the old regulations, fuel management simply wasn’t a big factor anymore; it played only a small role in the race,” he continues.
“So yes, some aspects remain, but the more abstract things, like lifting off the throttle, being inefficient, and then wanting to accelerate again – things that were particularly counter-intuitive – should be eliminated. Or at least the goal is to eliminate as many of them as possible.”
“As I said: there may be things we haven’t foreseen and that we will have to look at again.”
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