There are worries that lap times will be slower because of the hybrid engines. The petrol engine will produce about 575 horsepower and the electric unit around 475. This could mean lower speed on the straights, but the electric power should help a lot in the corners. Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich said: “The car pushes like crazy out of the corners. You feel like you’re sitting on a rocket.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is confident about the speed. He told Auto Motor und Sport: “When full power is deployed, we’ll be approaching the 400 km/h limit.” If that happens, it would break the current top speed record of 372.5 km/h, set by Valtteri Bottas in 2016.
Wolff also pushed back against early criticism, saying: “How can you criticise something that hasn’t even been fully developed yet?” He explained that the new cars will simply give drivers a different feeling and that this is not automatically a bad thing.
The cars will not be seen on track until testing in Barcelona at the start of 2026, but already many teams are focusing their development in this direction. Some expect racing to look different, with drivers managing battery power as well as engine power. According to Albon, this could give drivers a bigger role in how races play out.