![\"Cadillac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pat-symonds-cadillac.jpg\")
Cadillac F1 chief technical advisor Pat Symonds<\/p>\n
Symonds attributed his frustration with the process to shifting dynamics: \u201cIt was a little bit of the frustration that Formula One Management were getting less and less involved in the regulations, very much the FIA and things like the \u201926 power unit was not what I wanted it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contrasting approaches, he praised the 2022 chassis rules: \u201cWhen we did the 2022 car we listened to what the teams were saying, but we ruled them with a firm hand\u2026 We said, \u2018okay, we\u2019re listening to you, but we\u2019re actually going to do this\u2019. We took some of their input\u2026 We knew that each one of them had an agenda\u2026 This is the advantage of [me] spending so many years as a competitor. So we were quite rigid in what we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted the outcome: \u201cAs a result the 2026 power unit \u2018is probably not what I would have liked it to be\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the 2026 process, Symonds said: \u201cWith the \u201926 power unit, the FIA said it wanted to involve the manufacturers more. Unfortunately, I think it\u2019s like when you get a committee to design a racehorse, you end up with a camel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained the MGU-H removal: \u201cIt was decided to remove that really to try and encourage new manufacturers into the sport, which in some way was successful. Ford came in, Audi came in we\u2019ve got Cadillac come in. Porsche almost came in, they sort of faltered at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
His proposed fix: \u201cBut once you remove that energy source, if you keep everything else similar, we\u2019ve increased the power of the motors and things, the idea was to replace it with recovering energy from the front axle. If you did that, everything balanced out quite nicely, you weren\u2019t short of energy, you could have a lot more electrification on the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rejection came due to opposition: \u201cBut unfortunately, because of this committee approach to things, one team was very much against front axle recovery. I think the president of the FIA at the time, Jean Todt, thought we were talking about four-wheel-drive, which we weren\u2019t, we were talking about energy recovery. Maybe drive once you\u2019re on the straight but certainly not in the corners, so not a four-wheel-drive, classic, car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Symonds concluded: \u201cSo, because of this sort of very democratic approach, one of the times when democracy is not good, we ended up with this camel. We\u2019ve ended up with a power unit that\u2019s sparse on energy. Okay, there are ways around it, but they\u2019re not good ways around it\u2026 So I wouldn\u2019t say that the \u201926 power units ended up the way I wanted. [But] the chassis, the aerodynamics, I think they\u2019re pretty good, the active aero is a good step forward, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
With regulations locked in and development underway, these vivid analogies\u2014Horner\u2019s patchwork monster and Symonds\u2019 committee-compromised camel\u2014highlight persistent concerns over whether the 2026 formula will produce exciting racing or demand last-minute fixes.<\/p>\n
How the FIA will react if 2026 F1 racing isn\u2019t good enough<\/p>\n
The FIA says it will step in and take action to ensure that overtaking in Formula 1 is neither too difficult nor too hard with the new 2026 rules.<\/p>\n
The FIA\u2019s single seater director Nikolas Tombazis, the architect of the 2026 F1 Frankenstein cars said the governing body would keep a close eye on things during winter testing and the early races to ensure that things work in the way intended.<\/p>\n
![\"Nikolas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1r113449.jpg\")
Nikolas Tombazis, FIA Technical director, during the Hungarian GP, Budapest 31 July-4 August 2025. Formula 1 World championship 2025.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the overtake mode in particular, Tombazis said: \u201cWe are still fine-tuning that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019re getting more and more final simulations, we have levers that we can adjust from a regulatory point of view.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if we see that overtaking is a bit too difficult, for example, we have levers to make it get a bit easier. Or if we find it is too easy, we have levers to make it a bit more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tombazis said it was important that F1 produced the right balance in terms of passing \u2013 as too much overtaking can be just as bad for the spectacle as none at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cOvertaking has to be in a narrow window,\u201d he said. \u201cIt cannot be too easy. We don\u2019t want cars just driving past each other without having a fight. We always want to have this fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also don\u2019t want it to be impossible, so that when they leave the grid after lap one, you know how it is going to finish. We clearly don\u2019t want that either.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have ways to go in both directions. And when we get the initial running and final simulations with cars and so on, we may need to take some of those to do some small adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be differences in energy that can create a situation where one car is maybe not able to defend the position as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we believe that, as the teams and the drivers get used to operating in a certain way, they will make sure that they\u2019re not completely vulnerable to a particular situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf suddenly we took these 22 cars and threw them on the grid now and told them to start racing today, I\u2019m sure we would find situations where people are not yet fully prepared or fully optimized in that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think once people know how to use that, then they will be able to make sure they\u2019re not like a sitting duck on the straight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Formula 1 prepares for its sweeping 2026 regulations\u2014introducing power units with a near-50\/50 split between internal combustion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-385701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}