The FIA and Formula 1 teams are targeting tweaks to the 2026 technical regulations aimed at addressing some of the shortcomings exposed during the opening three rounds of this year’s championship.
A meeting between the sport’s governing body and technical experts from teams and power unit manufacturers was held on Thursday, with a series of further meetings lined up to nail down any potential changes before the next race in Miami on May 3.
The focus of the meetings is on the excessive energy management required under the new regulations, especially in regard to qualifying and the potential for safety issues created by extreme speed differentials between cars.
The latest generation of power units can deploy three times as much electrical energy as their predecessors, but that has left them starved of energy at most circuits as they struggle to recover the necessary electrical power under braking to feed the power demand on the straights.
The unbalanced equation has resulted in a new style of driving in which harvesting of electrical energy is often prioritized over pushing to the limit, even during qualifying laps.
Four-time champion Max Verstappen has referred to the new generation of cars as “Formula E on steroids,” while other drivers have called for changes to put the emphasis back on the driver over the power unit.
The rules have also created a new style of racing this year, which often results in multiple battery power-assisted overtakes per lap and has been criticized by some of the drivers.
But following the opening three grands prix, sources have told ESPN that F1 bosses were pleased with the new style of racing, which they claim has been welcomed by the fans they have surveyed.
Details of what was discussed at Thursday’s meeting were not announced, but an FIA statement confirmed the focus was on “energy management” after general agreement among teams that the events to date “have provided exciting racing.”
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F1 has stressed that the series of meetings before Miami are not aimed at radically changing the formula, but instead agreeing on tweaks to smooth off some of the rough edges.
The next meeting will take place on April 15 to explore potential changes that will need to be made to the sporting regulations (a separate FIA rulebook to the technical regulations) before a follow-up meeting is held between technical heads on April 16 to further explore the necessary technical changes.
A “high-level meeting” will then take place on April 20 between the FIA, team principals and the F1’s bosses at which “preferred options jointly proposed by the technical teams will be considered and a consensus sought on the way forward.”
Any tweaks to the rules will need to be approved by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, although that stage of the process usually represents a rubber stamping of changes that have already been agreed.
