Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has voiced concerns of “changing goal posts” with the 2026 Formula 1 power unit regulations.
An important facet of the incoming power unit regulations is an approximate 50/50 power split between internal combustion and electrical propulsion.
This has consistently brought up concerns of energy conservation, and fears that races could become an affair of ‘lift and coast.’
Plans to mitigate concerns were discussed at a recent meeting of the F1 Commission, ahead of which, Wolff described the agenda as a “joke.”
The F1 Commission proposed tweaking the power split, particularly on high-speed circuits such as Monza, in order to prevent egregious lifting and coasting.
Wolff, overseeing what is widely expected to be the class-leading Mercedes power unit next year as the German marque’s Team Principal, continued his opposition to making late tweaks to the 2026 engine rules, when the matter came up during Friday’s press conference at the Miami Grand Prix.
Wolff wants to see 2026 engines on track before changes are made
“Obviously the closer you come to new regulations the more you know people act in, all of us, in the interest of the team,” a diplomatic Wolff told select media including Motorsport Week.
“That’s our duty and I guess where we come from is we don’t know how it’s going to pan out next year.”
A point Wolff stressed was that it’s better to wait and see how the 2026 power units perform on track, before making hasty decisions.
“Are we going to see energy harvesting disasters in Baku and Monza? I don’t know, we hope not and what we have signalled is that rather than act now based on assumptions like we have been great at in previous years and then we’ve overshot or undershot,” he continued.
“It’s not like you need to throw the hardware away and then come back with something new.
“It’s within the software, it’s within the bandwidth of what you can do and we will see the final product hitting the road and testing next year and certainly you know us as a power unit manufacturer we want this to be a great show, we want to win but we are aware that there needs to be variability and unpredictability and we enjoyed the years from 2014 onwards but you know over a prolonged period of time that’s certainly not the best for sport.”
Mercedes boss caught in two minds over 2026 F1 engine debate
Harking back to when these rules were announced in 2022, Wolff acknowledged the initial backlash, before highlighting how the 2026 regulations were instrumental in attracting Audi and bringing Honda back to F1 with full commitment as an OEM.
Wolff, speaking on behalf of these parties and Mercedes, argued the intentions of several F1 OEMs were to commit to the regulations as they were originally written, and is caught in two minds about any late changes.
“I see myself trying to be very balanced between what is good for Mercedes, which as I said, I need to do, but on the other side, what is the right solution going forward and we need to avoid these swings,” Wolff said.
“The FIA proposed this engine, nobody liked it.
“The 50 per cent electric back in the day was what road cars were going to.
“It was a reason to attract manufacturers like Audi and Porsche, so we did that.
“So it’s difficult to change the goal posts, especially for the new ones.
“Honda re-committed and Audi committed, and including us they are not keen on changing those goal posts at that stage, but we need to be open-minded if necessary next year.”
Changes ‘warrant looking at’ – Red Bull
Another new player in the F1 power unit scene is Red Bull, but its CEO and Team Principal Christian Horner is very open in discussing changes to the 2026 engines.
Horner’s view is that concerns over lifting and coasting aren’t new and if it’s in the best interest of F1 to mitigate them, then action must be taken.
“Look the regulations are fixed for next year and that’s what everybody’s designed and developed their engines too and I think the biggest concern is one that’s not a new concern,” he began.
“It’s one that’s been flagged from two years ago from all of the PUMs, the amount of harvesting that there is.
“Inevitably that the chassis designers will outperform the criteria of the regulations and therefore, a consequence of that will be the amount of lift and coast that there will be in a Grand Prix.
“Of course, what you have to remember with the ‘26 regs is that the car is effectively constantly in DRS mode so as soon as you enter the straights the wings open, so there will though be no passing mechanism.
“The FIA have raised a topic that was looked at a little while ago by the PUMs.
“If it’s something that’s genuinely in the interest of the sport in the interest of racing not to have all this lift and coasting I think it’s something that does warrant looking at and considering but it doesn’t actually change the spec of the engine.
“It doesn’t change the output of the engine, it’s just the amount of deployment of the battery, maybe at certain Grands Prix.”
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