![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The new cars are narrower and lighter, and with ground-effect aerodynamics abolished, they produce less downforce, and their narrower tyres will produce less grip.<\/p>\n
But the biggest change comes from the power unit.<\/p>\n
On paper it\u2019s still a turbocharged V6 hybrid, but the almost 50-50 split between combustion and electrical power will revolutionise the way it works.<\/p>\n
The previous engine generated only 120 kilowatts of electrical power. This year that almost triples, to 350 kilowatts, just shy of the 400 kilowatts produced by the conventional petrol motor.<\/p>\n
While no-one knows for sure the total power output for each power unit, they\u2019re almost certainly the most powerful in the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re also the most complicated to drive.<\/p>\n
Unlike the previous generation of motor, the use of most of that electrical power will be directly in the hands of the drivers rather than the car\u2019s software.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not simply a new element in wheel-to-wheel battle, when electrical deployment will be key in attack and defence.<\/p>\n
Drivers will have to master usage of the car\u2019s battery every lap \u2014 that is, they\u2019ll have to control when they use their electrical power and where they recharge the battery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a different way of driving compared to before,\u201d Haas driver Esteban Ocon said. \u201cI think we can forget everything that we\u2019ve learned since go-karts on how to go fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to learn everything new again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton sets fastest lap at F1 testing | 01:09<\/p>\n
A GAME OF KILOWATTS<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get the maths out of the way.<\/p>\n
The 2026 battery has an effective capacity of 4 megajoules, which is the same as it has been for the last 12 years.<\/p>\n
Despite that, the amount of energy able to be recovered by the MGU-K is more than 400 per cent higher than it was last year.<\/p>\n
On any lap, a driver can charge the battery by 8.5 megajoules \u2014 and when they\u2019re a second behind another driver, that limit increases to 9 megajoules.<\/p>\n
Of course this accounts for the fact that a driver will be constantly charging and discharging as they brake and accelerate.<\/p>\n
But at most tracks drivers won\u2019t get close to fully charging the battery around the lap. A Formula 1 car is fundamentally too fast for that.<\/p>\n
The battery gets most of its charge when a driver hits the brakes. At a track like Monaco, drivers will likely rarely have to think about the battery.<\/p>\n
But most circuits aren\u2019t like Monaco. At tracks that feature a usual combination of faster corners and fewer braking zones, drivers will run out of electrical power if they\u2019re not clever about the way they charge and discharge their battery.<\/p>\n
What will that mean in practice?<\/p>\n
Whereas previously setting a fast lap was mostly about pushing as hard as possible, now the task will be more about knowing where to push and where to conserve to ensure you\u2019ve always got some electrical power stored up.<\/p>\n
After all, if a driver runs out of charge, their car goes from a record 750 kilowatts to just 400 kilowatts.<\/p>\n
Feeney FASTEST in Red Bull’s F1 car?! | 08:37<\/p>\n
A NEW TYPE OF QUALIFYING<\/p>\n
Formula 1 might look most obviously different during qualifying, when drivers want maximum power to push as hard as possible.<\/p>\n
At some tracks, however, they\u2019ll need to balance that desire against the battery.<\/p>\n
For the first time ever, we\u2019re likely to see drivers lifting and coasting on qualifying laps to keep the battery charged.<\/p>\n
Lifting and coasting isn\u2019t new to Formula 1. Usually it\u2019s deployed in race conditions to save fuel. In the ground-effect era it was also used at the end of the straights to stop the plank grinding against the track.<\/p>\n
It might sound counterintuitive to do it in qualifying, but at some tracks it will be the only way to ensure charge throughout the lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not what you\u2019ve grown up doing,\u201d reigning champion Lando Norris said. \u201cIt\u2019s not what you do in karting \u2014 it\u2019s not what you\u2019ve ever done.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re still having to understand how to drive the car in the fastest way. There\u2019s just there\u2019s an added complication.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of trying to be flat as early as possible, now sometimes it\u2019s not as good to be flat early.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re lifting for one second and you\u2019re still trying to brake as late as you can, you\u2019re still having to figure out how to be on the limit of the car as much as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still the driver who has to do all of these inputs and make these decisions. It just makes our lives that little bit harder \u2014 but I get paid pretty well, I can\u2019t complain that I have to do a few more things!\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019ll be some other quirks too. Drivers will likely have to downshift more aggressively to keep revs higher for longer \u2014 higher revs mean more power is being harvested from the internal combustion engine for the battery.<\/p>\n
And looking at the lap overall, some corners will demand more patience and conservatism from the driver to prevent the electrical power from kicking in unnecessarily, saving it up for the more crucial straights and traction zones.<\/p>\n
Norris said it would give drivers more opportunity to differentiate themselves \u2014 to do a better job than the rest and succeed or to commit errors and lose out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll make it trickier, and you can make more mistakes and get things wrong more often, but that\u2019s the challenge of the rules this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris confident of going back-to-back | 00:51<\/p>\n
\u2018REWIRING THE BRAIN\u2019<\/p>\n
You can already hear the critics lining up, slamming the sport\u2019s new formula that will turn racers into taxi drivers on economy runs.<\/p>\n
Bear in mind that those exact same criticisms were levelled against the previous engines on their introduction in 2014 and turned out to be baseless.<\/p>\n
While the new power unit is certainly introducing a new element to racing, it\u2019s important to remember that there was no era in Formula 1 history when drivers weren\u2019t saving something.<\/p>\n
Mechanical sympathy was crucial in the early decades, when the retirement rate was astronomical \u2014 not to mention the mortality rate for any driver who pushed over the limit.<\/p>\n
As engines became more powerful, they also became thirstier, and suddenly drivers had to aggressively lift and coast just to make it to the chequered flag without running out of fuel.<\/p>\n
More recently tyres have become a key performance differentiator. Managing their temperature is defining to race performance.<\/p>\n
Battery power is just another element for the driver to manage.<\/p>\n
It was something that caused drivers consternation in the years leading up to 2026, when the early models of the cars used in the simulators delivered some alarming results.<\/p>\n
But after getting behind the wheel for real in Barcelona, the drivers were markedly more positive about the final product.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the things that we thought might be challenges definitely are challenges but not as alien as we might have feared,\u201d Oscar Piastri said. \u201cIn terms of some of the fears that maybe we had before we got on track, I think a significant majority of those have been alleviated now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just rewiring the brain a little bit \u2026 there\u2019ll be some differences, but fundamentally they\u2019re still the fastest cars in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think [F1 has] lost its identity at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri stars in hilarious new ad | 01:10<\/p>\n
CHAOS<\/p>\n
F1 will look different this year, that\u2019s certain.<\/p>\n
But rather than it becoming a staid spectacle predicated on energy management, Norris thinks races have the potential to be significantly more action packed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the minute there\u2019s a bit more emphasis on how the driver can handle and control all of these things both in a qualifying lap, but also in racing situations,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be more complicated to understand how you prepare overtakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore it was pretty simple in terms of you drive as quickly as possible but avoid the dirty air. It was quite easy to build up the battery in an efficient way,<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now when you save battery, you\u2019re going to lose quite a bit of time and you\u2019re going to lose a lot on the straights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019re going to see more chaos in races, where a driver has to be a little bit more on top of all of these different situations that can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s more emphasis on drivers\u2019 ability to control everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the new power unit package are two new modes: overtake mode and boost mode.<\/p>\n
Overtake effectively replaces DRS, giving drivers more power when they\u2019re close behind another driver.<\/p>\n
Boost mode, though, is the driver manually using more electrical power in attack, in defence or just for lap time.<\/p>\n
How drivers use boost will be crucial to how they race each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what you\u2019re going to see generally is more chaotic racing depending on when people use the boost button and at what times,\u201d Norris explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of places, even in Barcelona, where you don\u2019t really deploy the battery that much \u2014 say, between turn 5 and turn 7, that little straight, but if you use boost out of it, you gain a good amount of horsepower and you can overtake someone into turn 7, which you never normally saw before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing is then you\u2019re screwed down to turn 10. You\u2019ll be able to force people into different positions and create racing, potentially, in better ways than you\u2019ve been able to in the past. I think that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll see more yo-yoing, more moves with extra speed, but then that person might have to defend more than what you\u2019ve seen in the past, and that will create more chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercedes sophomore Andrea Kimi Antonelli said racing would become a high-speed game of chess, with the drivers attempting to outwit each other on power deployment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to come into the season very open-minded, and you need to be very creative as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like playing chess, but like a kind of speed chess. Obviously you don\u2019t have as much time to think for every move, but this year you always have to try and be two steps ahead of the others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strategic thinking might be most crucial at the start of the race. Whereas the previous power unit \u2014 through the disposed-of MGU-H \u2014 was able to keep the turbo spooled up and use the electrical energy to smooth out the phases of the getaway, now much more control will be at the hands of the driver.<\/p>\n
Electrical power can\u2019t be used before the car reaches 50 kilometres per hour and can\u2019t be used at all to prepare the turbo. Launches are back to being fully manual, which means any tiny mistake will cost drivers immensely.<\/p>\n
A driver who gets a bad start might be tempted to hit the boost button immediately, but that comes with its own issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s a lot more complicated, because as soon as you start to use any battery to help in any situation, you\u2019re just taking away a lot of battery to use for the rest of the lap,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe you have a better start, but you could also run out of battery by the time you get to turn 1 in some places \u2014 like Mexico, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricciardo & Max reunite for track day | 01:18<\/p>\n
LESS GRIP, MORE POWER<\/p>\n
Finally, the regulations have created a deliberate power-downforce mismatch. There\u2019s theoretically more power on offer, but it\u2019ll be harder than it has been in years to get it all down on the road.<\/p>\n
Downforce has been slashed by as much as 30 per cent \u2014 though teams will inevitably claw this back through development over time \u2014 but Pirelli\u2019s tyres are also narrower, reducing the contact patch and therefore grip.<\/p>\n
\u201cA car with less downforce and less grip is fundamentally harder to drive,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cWe\u2019ll move around a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drivers have responded positively to the way the car handles. The ground-effect cars were notoriously snappy \u2014 once they were out of control, they were difficult to rein back in \u2014 whereas the new car is more responsive to the driver\u2019s inputs.<\/p>\n
Bur the reduced downforce will do more than just make cars looser.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Barcelona, turn 9, turn 3, the last corner, we were pretty much flat last year,\u201d Norris said. \u201cThis year you\u2019re having to brake a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of corners that were easy in the last few years are going to become much bigger corners again. That\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to see more racing, but you might have different strategies, because what was flat last year and not really a grip-limited section, now when you put a new set of tyres on, you\u2019ll be able to gain in a lot more parts of the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
As impressive as it\u2019s been to watch Formula 1 cars tackle some of world motorsport\u2019s most ferocious high-speed bends at full throttle, in 2026 some of these landmarks will become real corners again.<\/p>\n
And given how many other things will be on the drivers\u2019 minds this year, the challenge could be greater than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest rule changes in Formula 1 history will change the way drivers race for the world championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[944,2095,12295,14212,1724,64,63,937,234233,239098,239108,239110,86006,239112,239105,2791,207045,84696,239097,239115,239102,79277,229832,239117,72812,49589,22304,2057,817,28118,813,816,193109,226761,49575,239113,223206,1737,21772,825,234673,239099,2184,145476,239103,2041,239116,18923,239118,233881,12022,239104,239106,220220,239109,3595,2020,239100,85,233906,239114,29994,239101,239111,12000,182896,2086,239107],"class_list":["post-467596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-america","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-arvid-lindblad","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barcelona","tag-battery-capacity","tag-battery-power","tag-boost-button","tag-boost-mode","tag-car-handles","tag-cars-tackle","tag-caused-drivers-consternation","tag-central-america","tag-chassis-regulations","tag-combustion-engine","tag-conventional-petrol-motor","tag-deliberate-power-downforce-mismatch","tag-economy-runs","tag-electrical-energy","tag-electrical-power","tag-energy-able","tag-energy-management","tag-engine-regulations","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-formation-lap","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-ground-effect-aerodynamics","tag-ground-effect-cars","tag-ground-effect-era","tag-hybrid-motors","tag-key-performance-differentiator","tag-lando-norris","tag-lap-time","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes-confident","tag-mercedes-sophomore","tag-mexico","tag-mortality-rate","tag-new-type","tag-north-america","tag-plank-grinding","tag-power-unit","tag-power-unit-package","tag-promising-testing-session","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-real-corners","tag-retirement-rate","tag-ricciardo-amp-max","tag-rule-makers","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-speed-chess","tag-sports","tag-supercars-amp-formula","tag-traction-zones","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-way-drivers-race","tag-way-racing","tag-western-asia","tag-wheel-to-wheel-battle","tag-world-championship","tag-world-motorsport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467596","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=467596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}