Former Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr. Helmut Marko gave his opinion on the 2026 Formula 1 regulations, insisting times have changed since the sport and the FIA decided on them.
Chassis aside, the 2026 F1 power unit was designed to deliver from an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and an electric motor on an equal basis with no MGU-H, which has turned out to be a disaster where racing has become an energy management exercise rather than the best drivers in the world fighting at the limit.
Basically, Formula One Management (FOM) and the FIA bent over to please car manufacturers and convince them to join the sport.
Marko, who has recently become an ambassador of the Red Bull Ring, weighed in on the current regulations, which have been criticized from day one by his former team, Red Bull Racing, with former boss Christian Horner and Max Verstappen both warning they were terrible, and they ended up being right, sadly.
Marko said: “They certainly overlooked a few things, but the regulations were decided at a time when there was still hope—or the view—that electric would be the only way.
“And that has changed significantly in the meantime,” he pointed out. “The internal combustion engine has made a comeback; we have fuel that is COâ‚‚-free, which means everything has been done from an environmental standpoint. And now we just have to make sure that we address these, I would say, shortcomings in the regulations as best as possible.
“50:50 [ICE and electric motor] sounds good on paper, but it doesn’t work because the battery has to be charged. And if there aren’t enough zones where it can charge,” Marko added.
Then there is the safety
The 82-year-old former racing driver also touched on the safety hazards the new regulations have imposed, with Oliver Bearman’s crash in Suzuka and Franco Colapinto’s and Liam Lawson’s near miss in Melbourne two glaring examples.
He said: “There’s also the situation we just had with Colapinto and Bearman. He comes in with an excess speed of over 50 km/h. It’s almost as if a vehicle were standing still, and that has to be avoided.
“The other thing is that the starts aren’t consistent, and that has led to dangerous situations. But it’s a new regulation; let’s give it a chance, and I think most of the development will be in the software area.”
F1 drivers have also been critical of the new regulations, with Max Verstappen, Marko’s former protégé, blasting them at every chance, while Lewis Hamilton, for example, claimed the cars were fun to to drive, with energy management ruining the experience.
“I think Hamilton is right [over energy management],” Marko commented. “But that takes us away from what Formula 1 stands for, where the fastest driver in a good car or the best car wins.
“It’s not about a team of engineers getting the programming just right. Or a full battery overtaking an empty battery. That’s not real overtaking.
“That’s not overtaking; it’s just passing by, and that’s more than artificial, and it really shouldn’t be,” Marko concluded. (Source: ORF)