The concessions made to get Audi and Porsche into F1

The new 2026 F1 engine rules have been designed to get Audi and Porsche to commit – and will send all teams back to the drawing board

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The silence of Formula 1’s summer break was shattered on Tuesday when the FIA confirmed a batch of important rule changes as agreed by the World Motor Sport Council.

Alongside detail on tweaks to aero regs to control porpoising and stricter roll hoop standards came something that we’ve been waiting a while for – confirmation of the 2026 power unit regulations.

That season may seem a long way away, but in terms of designing and developing a brand-new PU it really isn’t that far. And the significance is that the VW Group and its associated brands Porsche and Audi have been holding out for final confirmation of the rules before formally committing to entering the sport in 2026.

Given that those regs have now been agreed and published, we have to assume that the two newcomers are happy, and that their plans will be formally announced soon.

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Porsche’s last foray into F1 – with Footwork Arrows in the early ’90s – was less than successful

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Not that there will be too many surprises. Porsche is joining forces with Red Bull Racing and will produce its new PU in conjunction with the new RB Powertrains division that is being put together in Milton Keynes, while Audi is preparing its own independent V6 project and will take over and rebrand Sauber, or what is currently known through a straightforward sponsorship deal as Alfa Romeo.

It’s been over 30 years since Porsche’s last disastrous shot at F1 with the awful V12 that it supplied to the hapless Footwork team in 1991. Since then there have been a few false dawns as the VW Group kept an eye on grand prix racing, but never committed.

The company took part in the discussions that led to the framing of the current hybrid rules, introduced in 2014, but having done so, never actually showed up. The Dieselgate scandal didn’t help F1’s place on the list of priorities.

Now the time is right, and a combination of technical, financial and marketing factors have combined to make it so. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, once charged with evaluating an Audi entry, has done everything he can to ensure that the two German marques are ready to commit.

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Domenicali has gone to great lengths to make sure Audi and Porsche commit

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They had a long list of boxes that had to be ticked before they would make a full commitment to F1.

Crucially they wanted a set of technical regulation changes large enough to send established rivals back to the drawing board, thus putting new entrants at a less of a disadvantage.

Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari will enter 2026 having worked with the current regulations for 12 full seasons, not counting the years of development that preceded the debut of the hybrid V6 rules in 2014. Honda, should it ultimately also decide to pursue a 2026 project, is only a year behind.

In other words the more changes for 2026, and the more elements that the established players had to rethink, the better it would be for Audi and Porsche.

2026 Formula 1 engine rules changes – summary
MGU-H Deleted
MGU-K Now supplies up to 50% of power
Fuel Switch to fully sustainable fuel with zero CO2 emissions

 

Key to it all was the removal of the MGU-H, the device that recovers and returns energy to the turbocharger, which was agreed long ago, a concession to the newcomers that the established manufacturers reluctantly accepted.

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However there are many other changes, including limited freedom on the lower part of the engine with tighter prescriptions, and a focus on the upper part (i.e. “combustion area and the associated components”) as the battleground between manufacturers.

There will be simplification in many areas, including more standardisation.

The MGU-H may be gone, but the ERS will be more powerful, and it’s another area where competition will be encouraged – and crucially the FIA says that the rules “will aim to increase the road relevance of the cells, power electronics and MGU-K [which generates electricity under braking and uses it to power the car when accelerating].”

Tied to the hardware changes is a move to fully sustainable fuels for 2026, something that new and existing manufacturers have welcomed for obvious marketing reasons, as well as a genuine desire to lead the way forward for the industry as a whole.

Indeed, the FIA explains it thus: “Fully sustainable fuel is a cornerstone of the 2026 regulations and all fuel components must come from sustainable sources – either non-food-bio-derived, from genuine municipal waste or from sustainable carbon capture.

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Red Bull has been investing since last year in its own engine facility, but now Porsche will begin to oversee this, along with a number of ex-Honda employees

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“This ensures that no new fossil carbon will be in the fuels used in F1 and therefore no new fossil carbon will enter the atmosphere from an F1 car exhaust.

“Fuel regulations encourage any sustainable production method to be followed without prejudicing on-track performance so fuel suppliers can use F1 as a step in their own pathway to global and commercial scaling up of sustainable technology.”

Many of the technical regulations, such as the standardisation of parts and other development restrictions, also feed into the financial element of the new package – as do the sporting regs.

As now there will be limits on the number of PU elements a driver can use in a season before penalties kick in, but it will be tighter than before, with the FIA noting that “the supply perimeter has been extended to ensure parts such as exhaust systems and ancillaries must be designed for a complete PU life resulting in a significant cost saving over a season.”

One of the biggest elements in the 2026 package is a limitation on hours of dyno running, in much the same way that the teams have had to get used to aero testing restrictions. The new rules cover the three years of development in 2023, 2024 and 2025 with a blanket total of 5400 test bench hours for the V6, plus 3400 for the ERS.

What combining the three years means is that if your project is late to get going you can push more of your total hours in ’24 or ’25, and you won’t lose out. It’s a way of giving the new guys a fairer crack.

Once racing with the new PU starts in 2026, hours are dished out per year, and it’s the same for everyone.

There’s also a limit on the number of dynos that can be used by each marque – essential three for single-cylinders, three for power units, and one for powertrains.

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FIA has made concessions to Audi and Porsche to help them get up to speed

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Useful for the two newcomers and indeed anyone else who gets it wrong in 2026 is the FIA’s provision for levelling the playing field between the manufacturers, under the banner of “Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities.” Any manufacturer who is more than 3% off the power output of the best PU will be allowed extra upgrades and extra dyno hours with which to close the gap.

All of the above feeds into the new PU financial regulations, a novelty that was key for the new entrants. Essentially spending is limited to $95m a year over each of the three development seasons from 2023 to 2025, rising to $130m once racing starts in 2026.

As with the established team financial regs there are many exclusions – including manufacture and servicing of PUs leased to customers, and any spending on the current engines as raced in 2023-‘25.

The FIA logo displayed on a flag on the starting grid of the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Park, Turkey, on the 07 June 2009. (Photo by Darren Heath/Getty Images)

Agreeing the new engine rules has been a long and arduous process for FIA and F1

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Buried in the actual regulations, and intriguingly not highlighted in the two-page summary issued by the FIA, is a concession designed for Porsche and Audi as they get up to speed over the next three years.

Essentially newcomers will be able to spend an extra $5m in 2023 relative to the established manufacturers, followed by $10m in 2024 and a further $10m in 2025.

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It’s not framed as an extension of the cap relative to rivals, but rather as a number that they subtract from the final costs that they declare for each year.

When you see the full extent of the PU regulations, now including the separate sporting and financial elements as well as the technical stuff, you appreciate why it took so long for it all to be agreed.

Some important F1 folk felt that the established manufacturers were in effect filibustering, dragging things out so that when everything was finally agreed Audi and Porsche would be a few months behind schedule. Typical Piranha Club games, in other words.

Meanwhile work is already full speed ahead on the Porsche project at Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes, whose staff moved in en masse in June.

The company has been spending big not just on hiring ex-Mercedes HPP people, but also on all the dynos and other equipment required to develop and run an F1 engine programme. There’s been a rush to do it before the cost cap kicks in next year.

“It’s an incredible achievement by all the team involved to achieve that deadline,” Christian Horner noted recently.

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Horner admits setting up the facility to produce PUs has been more complex than aniticipated

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“And of course, many orders have been made for capital equipment, but the way that the supply chain currently is globally, inevitably, there will be certain equipment that just simply isn’t deliverable before next year.

“There is an understanding within the FIA that so long as the commitment has been place, it’s OK. What we can’t control is the supply chain we’re seeing globally. You can see with car deliveries the amount of lead time that there is on those even at the moment.”

Indeed, the new rules say that as long as capital equipment is ordered by the end of September, it falls outside any restrictions.

Horner admits that putting the Powertrains project together has proved more complex than anticipated.

“Yeah, absolutely. And the complexity and the size of it has only multiplied by a significant factor. But again, that’s all driven by regulations. When we initially talked about coming in, it was based on a very simple engine, that’s no longer quite the case. But there will be a budget cap and so on, which will help to contain costs.

“The team are doing a great job. We’ve attracted some fantastic talent. And the first developments are starting to take shape.”

What isn’t yet 100% clear is just how much input Porsche will have on the technical side, given its WEC hybrid expertise, and how that will be integrated with the efforts of the ex-Mercedes folk already hired by Red Bull.

“We have assembled an extremely talented group now,” says Horner. “Of course, you’re always going to be open to different technologies and experiences. It will be foolish not to.

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Porsche and Audi have had many battles at Le Mans, and now look set to take the rivalry into F1

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“But we’ve created a phenomenal facility, a world class facility, in Milton Keynes. And of course, all the synergies that apply to having the whole lot under one roof continue to make a great deal of sense.”

Given that philosophy the fact that Porsche and Audi are coming in with separate projects, rather than combining their resources and putting their respective badges on the same PU, remains a source of mystery to many F1 observers.

However, their desire to compete with each other has to be lauded. And after all it’s exactly what happened in the WEC, as McLaren team principal and former Porsche sportscar boss Andreas Seidl knows very well.

“For me, it simply would be great for F1, for us as competitors, if great brands like Porsche and Audi would enter F1,” the German noted in Budapest last month.

“I’ve been part of a battle between Porsche and Audi as well for some years, which was great, and if they want to go for the same again, I would watch it with great interest as a fan…”

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