{"id":435179,"date":"2026-01-24T21:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435179\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T21:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:00:09","slug":"ross-brawn-on-f1-2026-engine-loophole-claims-and-smart-rule-interpretation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435179\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross Brawn on F1 2026 engine loophole claims and smart rule interpretation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ferrari, Mercedes and Brawn boss, Ross Brawn, has responded to reports surrounding F1 2026 power units, describing them as \u201ca clever interpretation of the regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FIA met with key team members on Thursday (January 22) to discuss the new power unit and chassis regulations, with reported allegations that one or two manufacturers had exceeded the 16:1 compression ratio for its pistons, which could give a boost in power.<\/p>\n

Brawn: Power unit rumours \u2018sound like a clever interpretation of the regulation\u2019<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on January 23 2026<\/p>\n

Compression ratios are the ratio between the maximum and minimum volume in a piston during the compression stage of a power cycle, and while standard road cars tend to have compression ratios between 8:1 and 12:1, F1 2026 cars have a permitted maximum of 16:1 as per the new power unit regulations, a reduction from 18:1 in the previous ruleset.<\/p>\n

Reports emerged in late 2025 that one or two power unit manufacturers had spotted a regulatory grey area, and had been able to find a way to achieve this ratio at ambient temperatures but run at a higher compression ratio while on track, when the power unit is hotter and thermal expansion takes place.<\/p>\n

One of the manufacturers to potentially find this grey area is rumoured to be Red Bull-Ford, though Red Bull Powertrains technical director, Ben Hodgkinson, dismissed these concerns as \u201ca lot of noise about nothing\u201d<\/a>, adding the team\u2019s first power unit with Ford had a compression ratio \u201cway too low\u201d to be a legality concern.<\/p>\n

More about the F1 2026 regulations<\/p>\n

F1 2026 tech analysed: The future of overtaking and biggest car advantage identified<\/a><\/p>\n

Explained: How F1\u2019s new \u2018overtaking mode\u2019 will work in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Brawn, who enjoyed dominant title success in his spell at Ferrari alongside the unlikeliest of championship success with his eponymous Brawn GP team in 2009 \u2013 when the team took advantage of that season\u2019s regulation changes with an innovative double diffuser solution \u2013 admitted that, while his knowledge of the new regulations is not as high as it once was, his understanding is the \u2018loophole\u2019 is simply a clever interpretation.<\/p>\n

He added that it\u2019s also normal for rivals who\u2019ve perhaps not spotted the loophole to\u00a0find a way to curb what they perceive to be an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, as it\u2019s been described to me, it just sounds like a clever interpretation of the regulation,\u201d Brawn said to Sky Sports News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know enough about it anymore, but I think whenever new regulations come in, as we\u2019ve seen in the past, always someone takes a clever interpretation. That\u2019s what\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, for the other teams, the best form of defence is attack. That\u2019s what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Results of the FIA\u2019s meeting from Thursday are yet to be disclosed, but the governing body confirmed to PlanetF1.com that it was of a technical nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is customary with the introduction of new regulations, discussions on the 2026 iteration covering power unit and chassis are ongoing,\u201d said an FIA spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting planned for 22 January is between technical experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs always, the FIA assesses the situation in order to make sure the Regulations are understood and applied in the same manner between all the participants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Limited live TV coverage for first F1 2026 Bahrain test<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ferrari, Mercedes and Brawn boss, Ross Brawn, has responded to reports surrounding F1 2026 power units, describing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,44,17165,204022,85],"class_list":["post-435179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-ross-brawn","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}