Why Road Relevance Is Still Relevant
As Formula 1’s future technical regulations inch towards increased hybrid power and better racing, it continues to be a more convincing sell than all-electric series
I’ve been quiet on Substack over the past month. Here’s a peek at what I’ve been up to:
“It’ll be drivers — Formula 1’s most recognizable faces — that can help convince fans to care about the sustainability behind a motor race.”
I wrote about a few of my favorite things (sustainability, streetwear and speed) for a new start-up magazine, Esses Mag, along with sustainable tires and a bunch of other things for Race Tech Magazine.
Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend soaking in the rubber, rain and raucous crowds at the Indy 500 on assignment.
I’m back here after the busiest month in motorsport to talk about Formula 1’s latest technical regulations.
When the last set of Formula 1 regulations were announced, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes enjoyed a cushy 133-point lead over Max Verstappen. The seven-time world champion didn’t know then that his eighth title wouldn’t come the following years or that his then-teammate Valtteri Bottas, trailing behind him with 223 points, would be halfway through the championship four years later without a single point.
In 2020, businesses across the globe shuttered and racing halted. Once drivers returned on track, it wasn’t long before a new age of regulations set in. The 2022 technical regulations aimed to increase overtaking abilities and bring better racing, but unveiled clunkier cars and an era of unprecedented dominance.
The sport is founded on the periodic creation of new rules and is dependent on teams’ interpretations of such guidelines. The “Formula” is the set of dimensions, power limitations and geometric slots and slants that determine a car’s aerodynamic performance while the “1” is indicative of the series’ status in global motorsport. The real gaps in speed come from engineers’ ability to circumvent these regulations: some of the fastest cars in F1’s history came in the form of loopholes.
The new set of regulations, published Thursday, will trim cars down in width and weight with the idea that “lighter and smaller cars improve efficiency and handling,” according to the sport’s ruling body. The vehicles, gracing the grid in 2026, will crank up electric battery power in the sport’s ever-growing effort to be more eco-friendly. But amid the excitement, teams stopped to question the physics and practicality of such specifications, including the 20 drivers who will be sitting at the wheel in two years.
Worries circulated as initial tests revealed the new active aerodynamics caused the car to veer off track.
The current aerodynamic Drag Reduction System (DRS) will be replaced by similar technology: Manual Override Mode. The boost in energy will act in tandem with a set of two new active aerodynamic features: “X-Mode” and “Z-Mode.”
“When applied, ‘Z-mode’ will alter front and rear wings for drivers to enjoy greater cornering speed,” the FIA explained. “Drivers can switch to X-Mode on straights for a low downforce configuration to maximize top speed.”
DRS was introduced in 2011 and has been routinely debated ever since, with its critics claiming it makes speeding past rival cars too easy. In 2016, Autosport argued that the system had skewed the sport’s overtaking records.
On Sunday, sheets of rain interrupted F1’s usual DRS show. The Canadian Grand Prix’s semi-street circuit is famous for its lengthy straights. In dry conditions, the track would typically be optimal for hitting the turbo boost that is DRS — leaving battling drivers with few defensive options and, therefore, little opportunity to entertain. But the race was slippery, with some cars spinning out while others took their chance at honest and inventive passes.
In wet conditions, the jolt of speed isn’t available. While pressing the button to open the rear wing would typically be advantageous, safety regulations require that downforce (the magical force that makes the cars stick to the ground) is high to prevent sliding across the track. The swing between sunshine and showers and a slew of safety cars resulted in close racing, with the top four routinely swapping positions in a game of musical chairs on track.
When asked about the regulations over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Verstappen was the first to raise concerns. “Maybe you need some bananas and some extra fuel,” the Dutch driver joked, treating the top motorsport series more like Mario Kart.
Now, other drivers are joining the championship leader. However, the red flags wave around picking up too much speed. George Russell raised concerns about his and other drivers’ safety.
"It's going to have so little downforce in the straights, it's almost going to feel like you're just flying through the air,” Russell told Motorsport.com. "You can imagine in a race that it starts raining and you’re on slick tires, and you're doing 250 miles an hour on a street circuit. That's going to be a bit of a sketchy place to be, so these are questions that need to be answered.”
The FIA’s head of aerodynamics, Jason Somerville, told The Athletic that the new aerodynamic elements and weight changes will act as the additional push the new battery system needs. The result is a car that is anticipated to cut through the air. With a 30 percent reduction in downforce and a 55 percent drop in drag, following rival cars closely and subsequent wheel-to-wheel racing is anticipated to rule this era of regulations.
"To be fair to the FIA, they are fully aware of this and they're on top of this, and they're looking at all of the possible scenarios of what could happen,” Russell added. “Time will tell, but the cars are already bloody fast as they are. Where do we stop? Are we going to get up to 250 miles an hour? Do the fans really need or want to see this?"
Fernando Alonso also questioned if making the cars lighter was even possible while Alex Albon contradicted Russell, saying that the cars are “extremely” slow based on simulation tests.
As drivers swap opinions, the most contentious switch is a 50-50 split in electric battery power and sustainable fuels. Last season, Verstappen was ahead of the curve in critiquing the increase in battery power, boiling it down succinctly to “it looks pretty terrible.” Concerns about drivers repeatedly needing to change gears on long straights and a lack of energy slowing down top speeds only increased anxiety.
But the hybrid engine is also the major selling point for auto manufacturers.
F1’s engine split is reflective of its ever-changing and ever-growing audience. The transition to sustainable fuels made sense for its traditional spectatorship: a gaggle of loyal gearheads. Drop-in sustainable fuels are an easier pill to swallow. The process still makes that deafening growl, but with around 60 percent fewer emissions and can be dropped into any engine. It’s a change, but a comfortable one — the equivalent of urging someone to throw their plastic water bottle in the recycling bin rather than the trash.
But 2026 is leveling the power split. Energized by 50 percent electric battery power, F1 is looking to the future and its fanbase there.
The term “road relevance” is thrown around just about as much as “sustainability” in motorsport paddocks and team garages across the globe. It’s become used so often that its meaning is sometimes fuzzy: what does it mean to be relevant to the automotive industry as it transforms in the 21st century?
On the surface, Formula E is manufacturers’ best bet. As nearly every auto giant announces a net zero deadline, the all-electric cousin of F1 makes sense as an investment. The series is attracting a young audience that didn’t grow up with the loud hum of engines and won’t mind trading it in for a high-pitched zipping noise. But despite the series surpassing NASCAR in 2023 as the fourth most-watched motorsport series, fans are far and few between compared to F1’s global audience.
The upper echelon of motorsport remains just that: the top racing series. Even if the Monaco E-Prix in April amounted to 200 passes while F1 accomplished just 22 last May, the latter brought in a larger audience and bigger sponsorship deals.
F1 is a high-risk, high-reward investment for manufacturers. Although funding a team is a billion-dollar expense, it remains the global stage for the automotive industry. In 2016, operating a Formula E team was four percent of the cost of running an F1 team, according to Forbes. But the payoff is minimal — and up in the air. While F1’s championship-winning team pockets around $140 million in earnings and global recognition, Formula E still has a hard time convincing racing fanatics to care. Even if its business model is “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” as Politico pointed out, Formula E can’t seem to garner the same status as F1.
So, why do manufacturers have to choose one? They don’t, but they are.
While once buying into Formula E, F1 manufacturers have left the all-electric series in recent years. In 2020, Audi, the German-based automotive company that will join the F1 grid in 2026, withdrew from Formula E. Renault, becoming the first constructor to join Formula E, passed its team ownership onto Nissan.
Despite Mercedes, the most prolific engine supplier in the sport (currently selling engines to McLaren, Williams and Aston Martin), aiming for electric vehicles and hybrids to account for up to 50 percent of sales by 2030, the company handed over its Formula E team to McLaren in 2022.
Electric racing series act as necessary testing grounds for the research and development of electric road vehicles, but the widespread adoption of those vehicles remains slow stateside. F1 and IndyCar — credited with popularizing everything from the rearview mirror to regenerative breaking — may act as the necessary bridge between gas-guzzling and 100 percent electric. Automakers are taking a similar slow approach, despite decarbonization goals.
Reuters reported that Mercedes-Benz had delayed its electrification goal while boosting its combustion engine line in February. Porsche, a top team in Formula E, has similarly put electric vehicles on the back burner as the company focuses on drop-in sustainable fuels.
And young audiences are showing similar signs of lagging electric vehicle interest. According to Pew Research, the number of U.S. adults in support of swapping out gas-powered vehicles by 2035 has decreased since 2021. While Gen Z is a values-based generation and is the most likely to buy an electric vehicle, they aren’t confident that the U.S. has the necessary infrastructure.
With F1’s sights set on growing American investment and interest, hybrid technology is a safer and more relatable bet. Plus, as IndyCar leans into 100 percent sustainable fuel and delays hybrid plans, F1 is still able to claim an innovator status in the U.S. even if it is just a few steps ahead of the American series.
F1 also remains the only single-seater series that is an engineering competition. Since the teams are not provided with the car’s body and aero package by the series — like in Formula E and IndyCar — manufacturers have more freedom to bend the rules and push the boundaries of what is possible. In 2026, that means engineering a new generation of nimble and narrow semi-electric vehicles.
The president of F1’s ruling body, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, is convinced the new regulations will bring renewed interest to the sport from power unit manufacturers.
“The Power Unit Regulations have already resulted in a record number of PU manufacturers committing to the sport,” Ben Sulayem said in the FIA’s regulation announcement. “And now, in tandem with chassis regulations that provide for lighter, more agile cars featuring innovative aerodynamic solutions, we have created a set of regulations designed to not only improve racing but also to make the championship even more attractive to PU manufacturers, OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] and existing competitors. The key features of the 2026 F1 Regulations are advanced, sustainability technology and safety. Our aim, together with Formula 1, was to produce a car that was right for the future of the sport’s elite category. We believe we have achieved that goal.”
With increased competition comes a better chance at shaking up the finishing order. Verstappen’s Honda power unit, sitting snuggly inside his navy blue Red Bull, dominated the past three years. After breaking nearly every record in the sport’s history books, viewership fell off — with even mainstream media outlets reporting that F1 grew too fast in the States and now new fans were tuning it out due to Verstappen’s streak. But a slew of technical problems for the reigning team so far in 2024 and three other race winners have shown that all F1 needed to re-attract the masses was some battling for first place.
The hope now, with Miami amassing a record viewership on ESPN, is that the 2026 regulations will allow engine and powertrain manufacturers to stand on the podium on Sunday and sell more cars come Monday.