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F1 2026 rules changes can happen in "continuous" steps – Racing Bulls
TL;DR
F1 team principal Alan Permane advocates for continuous energy management trials ahead of the 2026 regulations. Stakeholders, including the FIA and teams, are meeting to discuss improvements, especially in light of recent safety concerns following a serious accident.
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Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane thinks Formula 1 should be ready to continuously trial energy management tweaks because of the upcoming pair of sprint weekends.
F1 stakeholders, including governing body the FIA, the 11 teams and their respective power unit representatives, are holding a series of meetings to formulate and then vote on solutions to improve the 2026 regulations.
In the wake of Haas driver Oliver Bearman's 50G accident in Japan, there is a major focus on reducing the safety risks associated with the increased closing speeds between cars, while restoring qualifying to an all-out spectacle.
A first raft of solutions will be discussed at a high-level meeting on Monday, followed by an e-vote. The resulting changes will be implemented as early as the Miami Grand Prix on the first weekend of May, although FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis recently suggested there may be a two-stage rollout of the rule refinements.
“These rules are what we collectively refer to as energy management rules that won’t require changes to hardware but may require some settings to change and some software. Changes that are fundamentally possible to introduce very soon and go to the core of addressing closing speeds or driver satisfaction,” Tombazis told The Guardian last week. “We may decide that we want to have a phase one and a phase two, and maybe give phase two a bit more time for some tweaks to be done by the manufacturers.”
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According to Racing Bulls chief Alan Permane, it would make sense to roll out tweaks over a number of races because of the complexities of the F1 2026 calendar.
The next two races in Miami and Montreal are both sprint events, featuring just a single 60-minute practice session on Friday. That format will make it tricky for teams to get on top of significant energy management changes alongside what is expected to be a paddock-wide introduction of aerodynamic upgrades.
The race after that, the Monaco Grand Prix, is also not ideal proving ground. Because of its low speeds and relatively limited time spent on full throttle, it is not considered a circuit where cars are expected to be energy-starved to begin with.
“I think the [changes] can happen in a lot more [phases] than that,” Permane said. “There are many, many suggestions that have been put forward. I think we have a particularly tough time in Miami in a sprint because there's really little time to test anything, so it may well be that we try some of the ones that are, let's say, a little bit simpler and less risky in Miami, and then we try some more in Montreal. And then, of course, we go to Monaco where it's almost impossible to test anything.”
Alan Permane, Racing Bulls
Alan Permane, Racing Bulls
The ideal site for another round of changes would be the Barcelona race at the end of June, which is not only a regular race weekend but also a well-known test venue where this generation of cars has already run during the pre-season shakedown in February. Austria, mid-June, is another regular weekend before the next sprint takes place in July at Silverstone's British Grand Prix.
“Barcelona might be the first time where we try some of the more, let's say, challenging ones,” Permane suggested. “I wouldn't say it's necessarily two upgrades. I would say we should keep open-minded and maybe this is a continuous thing. I don't know. That would be driven by the FIA and by F1, but I don't think we should limit ourselves, certainly. We can keep working at it.”
However, having seen some of the suggestions proposed at last week's technical working group meeting to reduce or tweak energy deployment, Permane played down fears that changes to the power unit software and to the sporting regulations would cause teams a massive headache to get to the bottom of.
“All these changes will have to go through the power unit working group,” Permane said. “Everything will go through governance unless it's safety stuff, which I'm sure the FIA will be quite firm on because they won't want to see that happening again. But the other stuff will have to go through the power unit working group, which, of course, Red Bull Powertrains is a part of. Nothing I've seen looks particularly scary. There's some very sensible things there.”
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But Permane did caution that F1's stakeholders should take care to avoid what he called “unintended consequences”. He argued taking away a lot of electric energy would actually make F1's challenging corners even slower because entry speeds would be lower.
“As ever, there can be unintended consequences when we change things,” he said. “I don't think we want to make the cars significantly slower. High-speed corners that are really challenging and on the edge, we don't want to make them too easy. I know people don't like lift-and-coast and I know we don't want to see any straight harvesting, and the way to eliminate that is to give us much less energy, which will make the cars slower.
“I don't think we want to make corners less challenging, though, so I think we need to be careful and I know they are being careful on that. I think there will be changes for Miami, I'm sure, but I'm not sure we'll see the whole raft of changes to Miami because I think that the format of the event will naturally make people want to be cautious.”
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Q&A
What are the key changes proposed for F1 2026 regulations?
The proposed changes focus on energy management tweaks and improving safety measures due to increased closing speeds between cars.
Why is there a focus on safety in F1 after the recent accident?
The focus on safety has intensified following Haas driver Oliver Bearman's 50G accident in Japan, highlighting the risks associated with high-speed racing.
Who is involved in the discussions for the 2026 F1 regulations?
Discussions involve F1 stakeholders, including the FIA, the 11 teams, and their power unit representatives.
What is the significance of the upcoming sprint weekends for F1?
The upcoming sprint weekends are significant as they provide opportunities to trial energy management changes and enhance the overall spectacle of qualifying.
