Stefano Domenicali, FIA, and Formula 1 drivers hold crisis meeting over 2026 regulations

The 2026 F1 regulations have come under fire mainly due to the new power units that deliver power on a 50-50 basis between a V6 Turbo Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and an electric motor.

The new chassis, while having the active aero, are less of an issue, especially since the new cars are smaller and lighter.

As it turned out, despite early warnings from Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen, the new power units, while managing a high peak power value, cannot sustain that output over the course of a full lap.

As such, drivers are now doing energy management exercises instead of driving flat out as they should be doing with cornering speeds now compromised as corners become the part of the track to recharge the battery, which will then be used on the straights for overtaking and defense.

On some tracks, even a full battery charge will not be enough for the straight, as at some point the power unit will start diverting ICE power to the charge the battery rather than propel the car, which is now known as super clipping.

Aside from the artificial Yoyo racing we have seen so far, with drivers making passes based on battery charge rather than skill, a safety concern has emerged due to two points.

First, the starts have become unpredictable since not all drivers are being able to spool their turbos enough to launch the car, which is done purely by ICE. That meant many drivers would bog down while others came flying at them, with an example being the incident between Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson in Melbourne, where the former almost collected the latter, who did not make a good launch.

The second issue was the high-speed delta between a chasing car in Overtake Mode and the one ahead, which may suddenly start to harvest power, slowing down dramatically.

Ollie Bearman's crash in Suzuka last weekend while trying to pass Colapinto, whose car was harvesting, has raised this Red Flag.

Needless to say, all these concerns have been pointed out by drivers and teams before the racing started, but the powers that be have insisted on trying to see how things go before taking any action.

While battery deployment and harvesting were reduced for qualifying at Suzuka to make sure the qualifying lap was more flat out, that did not really make a difference while the other more serious issues remained.

However, GrandPrix247 can report that a meeting was held today between FOM's Stefano Domenicali, the FIA, and F1 drivers represented by the GPDA to discuss what can be done regarding the new rules.

That is now possible since the sport is on an unexpected break after the cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to the war in the Middle East.

While we cannot be sure what the changes could be, we can speculate that there would be a change to the output ratio of the power units.

But we can also report that Mercedes and Ferrari are against any changes for now, which is understandable due to their competitiveness.

We can only hope that reason prevails and the discussions will come up with some solutions for the dire situation of F1 racing right now.