{"id":168117,"date":"2025-09-29T12:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/168117\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:49:07","slug":"mark-hughes-fia-president-wants-v8s-back-in-f1-but-its-not-his-decision-november-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/168117\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Hughes: FIA president wants V8s back in F1. But it\u2019s not his decision November 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

A populist president trying to reverse our environmental progress? Not Donald Trump. We\u2019re talking Formula 1<\/a>. F1\u2019s future is being shaped not only by developments in the real world but by the governance system in place since Liberty\u2019s takeover of the commercial rights. Within that framework there\u2019s a culture clash between the FIA and F1 which is also determining how that future is being decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen Sulayem requested a meeting about a 2.4-litre V8 formula\u201d<\/p>\n

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is being thwarted in pushing through his agenda for a return to a loud, normally aspirated F1. He recently ruffled a few feathers by requesting a post-Dutch Grand Prix meeting with teams and engine manufacturers about going back to a naturally aspirated 2.4-litre V8 formula from as early as 2029. Months before we\u2019ve even had the first race of the new \u201850\/50\u2019 electric\/ICE formula, he wanted to discuss what to replace it with and when.<\/p>\n

The meeting didn\u2019t happen. The president had gauged accurately that there was nowhere near enough alignment of views among the teams and manufacturers to have a hope of pushing any new formula through two years earlier than scheduled (the next regs are set to run from 2026-30). This came after a similar push by the president back in April to bring back V10 engines \u2013 and to possibly even cancel the scheduled 50\/50 power unit formula \u2013 failed completely.<\/p>\n

Given that F1 is an FIA championship, long-time followers of the sport may not fully appreciate why the president cannot simply impose his will (aided by compliant FIA member clubs) as in the days of Max Mosley.<\/p>\n

The reason is that under the terms of Liberty Media leasing F1\u2019s commercial rights (in place since 2017), the FIA no longer has that power. The governance agreement sees the FIA take a fee from FOM (Liberty\u2019s F1 management group) to administer the championship. But the regulations are devised by F1, not the FIA. That was true of the ground effect regs of 2022, just as it\u2019s true of the new 50\/50 electric\/internal combustion regs of 2026. These are FOM regulations. The FIA just rubber stamps and administers them to ensure compliance, with some small power to tweak through technical directives to meet FOM\u2019s stated aims.<\/p>\n

The FIA is effectively a contractor. It owns the naming rights but no longer gets to run and decide what Formula 1 is. It can introduce reg changes on emergency safety grounds. But that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not really within the FIA president\u2019s remit to decide what the regulations are going to be. But such is his personality, he would love to project the image that he\u2019s in charge of it all. A return to a loud, normally aspirated F1 after over a decade of the hybrids would be immensely popular with a significant proportion of fans. That\u2019s the part of the F1 fanbase Ben Sulayem is trying to appeal to. He\u2019s a populist.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another part of the fanbase which believes that\u2019s all dinosaur stuff, that F1 should be at the cutting edge of automotive technology and contributing to a more environmentally friendly future.<\/p>\n

Commercially, FOM is trying to straddle those two fanbases and to keep automotive participation, with all the investment that represents. So it\u2019s not being combative against Ben Sulayem\u2019s populist agenda, but it is being firm. In response to his showman rallying call of, \u201cOK everyone, follow me, we\u2019re going this way,\u201d FOM has responded with, \u201cNo thanks. Not just yet. We\u2019ll talk about it down the line.\u201d It\u2019s effectively their championship, not his. \u201cGet back in your box,\u201d is the implicit message to Ben Sulayem. \u201cWe\u2019ll stick to our original schedule of running next year\u2019s formula until at least the end of 2030.\u201d Even then, when the time comes, how likely is it that FOM would agree with Ben Sulayem\u2019s vision?<\/p>\n

All well and good. But let\u2019s assume for a moment that Ben Sulayem is not defeated by Tim Mayer \u2013 a much more measured man with whom FOM would probably be more comfortable \u2013 in the FIA presidential elections in December. That would have Ben Sulayem\u2019s next term running to the end of 2030, which is when the 50\/50 formula is scheduled to run until. But it is also when the current governance agreement between Liberty and the FIA expires. Theoretically, if the FIA decided it no longer wished to lease out the naming rights to the current commercial rights holder and wanted to go its own way, perhaps create its own rules once more, it would be free to do so from 2031. Or if not a split, at least a renegotiating of the governance contract.<\/p>\n

So just because FOM currently has Ben Sulayem under control, that wouldn\u2019t necessarily be the case after 2030. In the meantime, F1 is about to embark upon a new extreme hybrid formula, upon which its future success potentially hangs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paddock Talk<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m starting to get the feeling McLaren<\/a> prefers a world champion named Lando<\/a>\u201d
Bernie Ecclestone<\/a> on McLaren\u2019s Monza<\/a> team orders for Piastri<\/a> to hand second place to Norris<\/p>\n

\u201cVamos! Vamos! Best podium in my career\u201d
Carlos Sainz<\/a> deserves to be pleased with his P3 at Baku. It was Williams<\/a>\u2019 first podium since 2021\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYes we can expect to be on the podium\u201d
Fred Vasseur is optimistic about the remainder of Lewis Hamilton\u2019s<\/a> 2025 season<\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows? Someday\u2026\u201d
Zak Brown hasn\u2019t given up on Max Verstappen<\/a> leaving Red Bull<\/a> and racing for McLaren<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all teams will be ready for 2026\u201d
Who could Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA single-seater director, have in mind?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an honour\u201d
Christian Horner<\/a> agrees a severance package worth an estimated \u00a350m which will alllow him to return to F1 as early as next season\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A populist president trying to reverse our environmental progress? Not Donald Trump. We\u2019re talking Formula 1. F1\u2019s future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-168117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}