Adrian Newey admits that the new 2026 F1 engines with a 50-50 ratio between internal combustion and electric power will make for a strange combination.
The new regulations for 2026 are rapidly approaching and more details are becoming known. Some details are interesting, some details are worrying, but it is still too early to make a positive or negative assessment of the image.
The latest details come from Red Bull’s technical boss, Adrian Newey, who said that the new power units will work more on the electrical side of the story, with a combustion engine that will act as a generator.
“It will certainly be a strange formula because the engines will be working as generators almost all the time,” Newey told Motorsport.com.
“So the prospect of the engine having to work hard in the middle of the Loews hairpin in Monaco will take some getting used to,” he added.
The motor side of the story is almost complete, but aerodynamically a lot is still possible. It is almost certain that there will be new aerodynamic parts to compensate for the speed on the straight because the new power units will be less powerful than the current ones.
Simulations by the teams have already shown that the cars become less stable due to the new aero parts, which raises the question of whether it was a good idea to first design an engine and then the chassis.
“I think that’s a fair comment,” Newey continues. Probably one that even the FIA would recognize, that only the engine manufacturers wanted this kind of 50/50 combustion engine with electric motor.
“I think it’s what their marketing people said we should do, and I understand that: it’s potentially interesting because F1 can be a fast developer of technology.
“The potential problem on the battery and electrical side is the current costs, especially of electric motors to F1 standard, plus inverters and batteries. These are very high, but perhaps production techniques can help to reduce those costs in the future.
“The other problem is the battery,” the Brit continued. “What we need, or what the F1 regulations need from the batteries in terms of power density and energy density, is very different from what a normal road car needs. And that in itself means that the chemistry of the battery and possibly also the construction of the battery is different. There is, therefore, a risk that it is not immediately suitable for the road.
“But perhaps that is not the most important aspect. The most important aspect, especially for the manufacturers, although they will never admit it, is the perception of relevance in the showroom.
Newey thinks it will be difficult to get the new aero to work well with the new power units.
“To be fair, the engine regulations were created and pushed through without much attention paid to the chassis, and that is now causing major problems in finding a solution to work with it.”
“But I think the only good thing about it is that it promotes efficiency. And I think anything that does that and promotes that should be in line with what I said before: trying to use F1 to popularize a trend,” Newey concluded.