Christian Horner and Toto Wolff expand on the discussions around the F1 2026 power units along with cost of sustainable fuels and weight situation.
As F1 surges towards the 2026 season where it will see a revamp of the cars and also power units, various noises has started to pop up regarding some teething issues. One of them brought to light which led to latest discussions in the commission meeting was the power use and battery deployment.
Red Bull voiced concerns about the requirement of lifting and coasting at certain races on the main straight. At the same time, Mercedes said that everyone is in the same boat and one has to see how it plays out during the season to understand it better than deciding on it before even a test run.
The same two F1 teams were at the opposite ends on cost of sustainable fuel, where Red Bull didn’t think on as much about raising costs in operation. At the same time, Mercedes feels the cost will be a touch on the higher side and that they are finding ways to make is financially sustainable.
The weight topic was also discussed. Even though the chassis weight is being pulled down, the power unit remains on the heavier front, which both Red Bull and Mercedes think is the same for everybody. They are trying pull the overall weight down, but for now it is tougher than it looks.
Resolution on 2026 power unit –
Christian Horner: “The regulations are fixed for next year, and that’s what everybody has designed and developed their engines to. The biggest concern is one that is not new – it’s one that’s been flagged from two years ago by all the PUMs is the amount of harvesting there is and inevitably the chassis designers will inevitably outperform the criteria of the regulations, and a consequence of that will be the amount of lift-and-coast that there will be in a Grand Prix. You also have to remember that under the 2026 regs, the car is effectively constantly in DRS mode.
“As soon as you enter the straight, the wing opens. So, there’ll be no passing mechanism. The FIA have raised this topic that was looked at a little while ago again by the PUMs. If it’s genuinely in the interest of the sport and racing, not to have all this lifting and coasting, then I think it’s something that warrants looking at. It doesn’t change the spec or output of the engine. It’s just the amount of battery deployment maybe at certain Grands Prix.”
Toto Wolff: “Obviously, the closer you come to new regulations, the more people act – all of us – in the interest of the team, that’s their duty. Where we’re coming from is we don’t know how it’s going to pan out next year. Are we going to see energy harvesting disasters in Baku or Monza? I don’t know. We hope not. What we’ve signalled is that, rather than act now based on assumptions – like we’ve been great at in previous years and then overshot or undershot – as Christian said, you don’t need to throw the hardware away and come up with something new – it’s within the software and bandwidth of what you can do. We’ll see the final product next year in testing. As a power unit manufacturer, we want this to be a great show. We want to win, but we are also aware that in the sport there needs to be variability and unpredictability.
“We enjoyed the years from 2014 onwards, but over a prolonged period of time, that’s certainly not the best for the sport. I try to be very balanced between what is good for Mercedes, which I need to do, and what is the right solution going forward. We need to avoid these swings. The FIA proposed this engine; nobody liked it. The 50% electric back in the day was where road cars were going to and it was a reason to attract manufacturers like Audi and Porsche. So, we did that. It’s difficult to change the goalposts, especially for the new ones. Honda recommitted, and Audi committed, and including us, they are not keen on changing those goalposts at this stage. But we need to be open-minded if necessary.”
Cost of sustainable fuel –
Horner: “It was raised by one of the PUMs. Personally, for us, it’s not a significant issue. There are a lot of development costs in these new sustainable fuels that being introduced. Maybe a certain bracket should be introduced going forward. But fuel is potentially one of the bigger performance differentiators. The fuel companies seem very engaged in that.”
Wolff: “From my point of view, what makes it so expensive is that the whole supply chain and energy contribution needs to be green. To achieve all of that, you need a certain specification of ingredients that is very expensive – and it’s coming in much more expensive than anyone thought. So we need to look at whether there’s anything we can tweak to bring the per-litre price down. We want to be open-minded. Petronas has been a great partner of ours. They’re fully committed technically to the project, and with them we’re evaluating is there a regulation that can be changed to make it more financially sustainable.”
Weight situation –
Horner: “A number was plucked out of the air for car weight. We’ve got engines that are significantly heavier and a car weight that has become lower. So it will be an enormous challenge for every team to achieve it. Saving weight costs a colossal amount of money. There was a discussion about introducing steel skids – maybe that would warrant adding 5 kilos to the minimum weight. But it is what it is. It’s the same for everybody. There will be choices teams make to hit the weight, because weight is free lap time. Every 10 kilos is about 0.35 seconds. It will be very challenging for all teams to get down to minimum weight.”
Wolff: “Like Christian said, you make choices as a team. How much lap time do you attribute to weight and ballast? Where do you want to save? You may compromise other performance parts if you want to reduce your weight, or the opposite. It is challenging. The reason we’re doing it is to make the cars more nimble. Is that something that was important? I think it was. We’ve got to start somewhere. That initial step is difficult, but it’s the same for everyone.”
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