The FIA stated that the problems seen with the Formula 1 engines in 2026 were already anticipated, but explained that it was unable to change the regulations before the debut of the new power units. According to Nikolas Tombazis, head of single-seaters at the entity, the changes depended on the approval of the manufacturers, which did not happen.
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Since the beginning of the current season, drivers and fans have heavily criticized the current regulations, especially due to the 50% power split between the combustion engine and 50% electric energy, which increased the importance of battery management. As a consequence, the cars started to lose speed on the straights when the electric charge runs out, a situation that generated criticism throughout the championship.
Tombazis rebutted the criticism that the FIA had not anticipated these problems. According to him, the entity already expected this scenario but was limited by the governance rules of the technical regulations: “Any change needed to be approved by a significant number of power unit manufacturers. For the changes we discussed, we needed at least four of them to agree. Simply put, four did not agree during the years we debated these adjustments,” he said.
The official explained that the system was created to ensure equality among all manufacturers, including those who were not yet competing in Formula 1 during the development of the regulations. As an example, he cited Audi, highlighting that it would be unfair to allow a company outside the grid to invest much more than the others before officially entering the category.
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“They couldn’t come and say: ‘Since we are not competing yet, we can spend five times more money.’ That would be unfair,” explained Tombazis. He added that the governance agreement requires all manufacturers to follow the same financial and operational rules, but also limits the FIA’s power to promote unilateral changes.
The FIA made adjustments starting from the Miami GP to reduce some of the effects of the so-called ‘superclipping’, and there is already a plan to gradually change the power split to 60% combustion engine and 40% electric part by 2028. Tombazis indicated that deeper changes remained blocked due to the lack of consensus among the manufacturers involved in the decision-making process.
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