FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem responded to criticism directed at the 2026 Formula 1 regulations and stated that only the teams at the back of the grid complain about the new rules. The official also defended the category’s technical changes and reinforced his desire to see V8 engines return to the championship in the future.
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The current rules have been the subject of debate since the preseason, mainly due to the increased influence of the electric part in the power units. Drivers and fans questioned various aspects of the new technical package, leading the FIA to make adjustments already in the first stages of the championship.
According to Ben Sulayem, all teams and manufacturers participated in the process of building the regulations and had enough time to prepare: “We consulted the power unit manufacturers and the teams. When I started, it was 2022, I signed in August 2022, but this did not happen in eight months,” he said in an interview with Forbes.
The official explained that the rules were debated for about a year and a half before the official implementation: “Everyone had the same time. If you look at August 2022 and then the first day of testing in Barcelona, it was enough time for everyone,” he said.
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Ben Sulayem also suggested that the criticism mainly comes from teams that failed to correctly interpret the regulations: “Some had problems with the car, with the power unit or with the chassis, but it’s amazing how only those at the back are complaining. Did you hear Mercedes or Ferrari complaining? No, of course not. It’s a cycle.”
Despite defending the rules, the FIA made changes after the Japanese GP, the third round of the season. The changes, implemented from the Miami GP, aimed to improve the spectacle of Formula 1 and also increase the safety of the cars: “We had a discussion after Australia. We talked with the technical department, with the single-seater commission and then consulted the drivers on how to apply electrification and a safety issue, so now it seems better,” explained the president of the entity. According to him, decisions are made after broad consultations and thinking about the overall benefit of the category.
Aside from the immediate changes, the FIA has already confirmed new revisions to the power unit for next year, reducing part of the electric influence introduced in 2026. Even so, Ben Sulayem made it clear that he is thinking of even deeper changes for the future of Formula 1: “We talked about the V8 and now I’m thinking more about bringing the V8 back,” concluded the official, indicating that the FIA may return to discussing this path before the end of the decade.
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