Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s tech boss, admitted the new 2026 Formula 1 power units with a 50-50 internal combustion to electrical power ratio will create a strange formula.
As we edge closer towards F1’s next regulation reset in 2026, more and more details are being revealed, some worrying, others interesting – positive or negative being too early a judgement.
The latest details were revealed by Newey, who explained that the new F1 power units for 2026, that will have a higher reliance on the electrical component, will require the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to act as a generator to boost the electrical power.
That means the next generation of Turbo-Hybrid F1 power units will have to be operated in an unconventional way.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Newey said: “It’s certainly going to be a strange formula in as much as the engines will be working flat-chat as generators just about the whole time.
“So, the prospect of the engine working hard in the middle of Loews hairpin [Monaco] is going to take some getting used to,” he added.
While the power unit regulations for 2026 have been finalized for a while now, the aero rules are far from being set in stone, but the sure thing is that the new cars will feature active aerodynamic parts in order to reduce the drag of the new F1 cars on straights to compensate for the new power unit performance that is expected to be less than what we currently have.
But early simulations by the teams have showed that the cars are suffering from instability due to the moveable aero.
On whether finalizing the power units design before the chassis design was the inadequate way forward, Newey commented: “I think that’s a fair comment, and probably one that even the FIA would acknowledge – that only the engine manufacturers wanted this kind of 50/50 combustion engine with electric.
F1 did what the marketing people said
“I guess it is what their marketing people said that we should be doing and I understand that: it’s potentially interesting because F1 can be a fast-track developer of technology.
“The problem potentially on the battery and electric side is the cost currently, certainly of electric motors to F1 standard, plus inverters and batteries. It is very high, but perhaps production techniques in the future will help to bring that down.
“The other problem is the battery,” the Briton went on. “What we need, or what the F1 regulations need out of the batteries in terms of power density and energy density, is quite different to what a normal road car needs. And that in itself means that the battery chemistry, and possibly battery construction is different. So, there’s a risk that it won’t be directly road-relevant.
“But perhaps that’s not the key aspect anyway. The key aspect, certainly for the manufacturers although they will never admit it, is the perception of relevance in the show room,” the Red Bull tech guru pointed out.
“I think it is going to be difficult,” was Newey’s response when asked if the active aero issued can be sorted out to work well with the new power units.
“It is fair to say that the engine regulations were created and pushed through without very much thought to the chassis side of it, and that is now creating quite large problems in terms of trying to come up with a solution to work with it.
“But I think the one good thing out of that, is that it does promote efficiency. And I think anything that does that, and promotes that, has to be in line with what I said earlier: of trying to use F1 to popularise a trend,” Newey concluded.
Big Question: Do you think F1 and FIA have messed up the new for 2026 regulations?
The post Newey: 2026 F1 regulations are going to be a strange formula appeared first on GRAND PRIX 247.
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