Chapter 1: What changes are being made to F1's engine regulations for 2027?
The Athletic. The race is on, and F1 has committed to making bigger evolutionary changes by rolling back on the 50-50 electric conventional engine split in 2027 as it pushes to make the most of the current power units. So what are the implications of that, and what do we know about the pathway F1 has embarked upon for the mooted switch to V8 engines?
I'm Ed Straw, and here to unravel the technical and political intrigue are John Noble and Ben Anderson. Well, the big news is that F1 has announced its intention, its commitment in principle to increasing the power of the V6 and slightly reducing the deployment power of the MG UK in 2027. So, John, what exactly do we know about the changes? What's happening?
There is, as you've mentioned, it's an agreement in principle. So there's nothing's been finalised. It's still got a long way to go before it's in the regulations. But there are four key changes that are on the table for next season. Only two of these were mentioned in the press release.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of moving away from the 50/50 engine split?
The first one is increasing the ICE. You increase that power by 50 kilowatts. You pull back the battery power deployment by 50 kilowatts. So the famed 50-50 split gets more towards 60-40 in favor of the ICE. On top of that, they're evaluating bigger batteries. So potentially we jump from maybe 4 megajoules to 5 megajoules.
And then further tweaks to harvesting, which at the moment is capped at 350 kilowatts. So potentially you can lift that to 400, 450 kilowatts. And the end result of that is more power in, which gives you more power out, more energy available, and hopefully get rid of these energy-starved cars struggling especially in qualifying. So, Ben, is this a moment for you to celebrate?
Would you like to briefly just take a moment to enjoy it?
Oh, yeah. If I'd had time and we didn't have to record this podcast so rapidly, I'd have put the bunting up. I'd have got the streamers out. I'd be blowing my party whistle. I mean, it's not 50-50 engines completely in the bin. And just to move back to more simple times where whatever your right foot does is the response you get.
But it's a massive step in the right direction if it goes all through and if it means an end to ridiculous super clipping, terrible closing speeds, drivers getting punished for not driving the corners properly and basically being rewarded for going slower rather than faster through the turns, then I'm all for it. I think this is a great move. I think it's ridiculous...
On the one hand, the F1 is essentially binning the core principle of these new engine regulations after four races. But nevertheless, I completely welcome it.
Yeah, it's definitely a much bigger step in the right direction than what they did in Miami, I would say. There's still going to be limitations because it's still with similar hardware and it's only going to be the complete reset of the new engines down the line. That puts F1 back on a totally even keel.
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Chapter 3: How will the new V6 engine changes affect performance?
But it's a very positive step. And I have to say, John, I'm slightly surprised they've done this. We'll get on to some of the details and complications shortly. But what's the political landscape that's led to this slightly unexpected decision on this timeline?
Yeah, it is fascinating. When we first got kind of wind that this was on the table, it was a couple of weeks ago, we ran the story that it's up for discussion, it's being debated, it could come in 27 or 28, but our source said it needs to be decided before the Canadian Grand Prix, which we thought, oh, that's a ridiculous timeframe. Absolutely no way you'll get any consensus on that.
And then in the Miami paddock, speaking to people, Teams concerned about the chassis implications, which we'll go into. Concerned about the work needed for power units. Time's very, very tight now because work's already advancing quite quickly into 27. So it seemed, on basis, not realistic. We've got a step forward today.
It's an agreement in principle to the concept, but it would be wrong to say that all those concerns have now been wiped away, everything sorted, and there's a clear roadmap, which means everything's in place for the first race of 2027. It's still a surprise though, isn't it?
Because we were not expecting. We knew when you mentioned this morning, you know, that this meeting was happening. And sometimes these meetings happen and you get, you know, a comprehensive announcement, something concrete. I know it's still in principle, but... This is something concrete, an absolute proposal on the table.
Sometimes you just get a kind of nonsense release that's, yeah, we had a good meeting, constructive talks, and the can gets kicked down the road. There will be another meeting in the future where we will discuss the following meeting. Exactly, yeah, and we'll go over the previous meeting and plan the next one. In order to get even an agreement in principle, you still have to have agreement.
And this is such a divisive topic with so many competing political positions. And... the position of Formula One itself, being very pro the new regulations and saying everything's brilliant, as Stefano Domenicali said to you two in a previous episode of the podcast. So what I'm curious about is what's moved the needle between Miami, where, as we said, they made a step to alter the regs,
Usually they've been peddling the line that we make a change and then we wait a few races to see how that plays out. We were all saying, well, Miami is a good track for the regulations anyway. We'd need to test things in a different environment to see really whether the changes have moved the needle.
But it seems like they've just ripped all that up again and gone, oh no, we're just going to model through the next bit and just go ahead and plough on for a complete change in the future. That seems like a big step to have taken in a small space of time.
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Chapter 4: What political factors influenced F1's engine regulation changes?
I guess you can lean it off, can't you? And there's ways and means to do that. I mean, obviously, there's limits. If you lean off too much, you have problems. But I presume there'd be technical ways to adjust that. Because fuel flow, there is a range of fuel flow you can achieve.
yeah that would be that would be my answer anyway because yeah you don't want to end up in a situation where you've got qualifying engines and race engines do you because that kind of goes against the principle of cost saving and uh what have you in formula one now complicated isn't it yeah i suspect what john says about that pragmatic kind of phasing in that does sound like it might be the most likely idea because my idea of finding a way to make it all add up financially
It would cost a little bit of money and need a little bit of negotiation. But if it's worth doing for the product and there's a net benefit, then you can make a case for it. But that seems like a solution. How about the batteries, John, as well? Because, again, if you were to make the battery bigger, be able to store more energy, it's physically bigger. The battery is also in the chassis.
Now it has to be contained within there, so it's not bolt-on. It's integrated. So that's an extra challenge on top if they suddenly decided to go to 5 megajoules, which would be a great thing to do.
Yeah, you can't have bigger batteries and not change the chassis. It's absolutely central to the car design. Bang in between the floor and the fuel tank and the power unit where the MG UK is. So if you want to increase that, you're going to need to change the chassis.
So this goes the same as handing over the other elements that if we're going to carry over chassis, if the conclusion is to carry over chassis into next year, you can't have a bigger battery. And you can't have one size for qualifying and bolt an extra pack on the back. It would have to be consistent between qualifying and race. Two cars. You have two cars back and you can go in the spare.
So the battery element is dependent then on the chassis regulations, which is then dependent on the cost cap. So this is why there's a lot of work to be done to get this thing across the line. And that's before we even start talking about Adewo.
upgrade well i think from what you said the the blunt instrument is and the the battleground will be actually you can't carry the chassis over it's going to have to be a new chassis to accommodate the hardware and therefore there has to be some kind of discussion over the cost cap and the financial headroom and it will be how much extra money do you need who pays for it what's the fairest way to judge it because if you can move those dials properly then the rest kind of takes care of itself i think
I mean, the easiest solution is that you just lift the cost cap by X amount that's realistic for everyone to build a new chassis. I don't think any team would complain about having the financial freedom to build a new chassis of a bigger fuel tank.
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