Audi's intriguing stance on mid-season F1 rule change plans

Audi insists it is not beholden to Formula 1 retaining its 50/50 split between electrical power and the internal combustion ahead of Monday's crunch rules meeting.

F1 manufacturers and teams are due to get together on Monday with series chiefs and the FIA to discuss a range of ideas aimed at solving early problems with the 2026 regulations.

It is hoped that a plan can be agreed to roll out a series of tweaks that will start from the Miami Grand Prix, with some modifications perhaps not arriving until shortly before the summer break.

Ideas that have been evaluated include increasing the power of super clipping to 350kW, pulling back the recharge limit per lap to as low as 6MJ, reducing the overall battery power available, and tweaking active aero mode rules.

The key priorities being targeted are addressing safety concerns related to huge closing speeds as well as ways to improve the challenge and spectacle of qualifying.

But while a range of options to tweak energy management have been evaluated and discussed among technical experts over the last fortnight, getting enough support for changes to be added to the rulebook may not be straightforward.

That is because any tweaks that are made to the regulations could have competitive implications.

Mercedes, for example, is unlikely to support tweaks that wipe away key advantages it has with its power unit, while Ferrari will want to retain its edge on race starts.

Furthermore, if changes are made that make overtaking more difficult because closing speeds are reduced, then that could help Ferrari too, because of the way it has managed to get ahead early on in races.

Beyond competitive self-interest in play, there has also been talk that some changes may face resistance because of political reasons.

One such element at the centre of this is the notional 50/50 power split with the new 2026 engines.

It has been suggested that a lot of the current problems with the energy-starved cars could be eradicated if the internal combustion engine element was made more powerful, or the electrical element reduced.

Changing the engine output in the short term through increased fuel flow is not realistic, and could only come into play for 2027, while pulling back on the 350kW of electrical power allowed now would be controversial.

Either of those directions would require stepping away from the 50/50 power split headline figure that was viewed as a critical element of the rules that attracted new manufacturers such as Audi in.

Audi's stance

It has been suggested that the 50/50 element could become an area of big disagreement among manufacturers, and that Audi would stand firm in keeping it because it was so central to it entering F1 in the first place.

However, that appears not to be the case - with Audi F1 project leader Mattia Binotto insisting that Audi's decision to enter grand prix racing was about more general elements of the new regulations.

"I think that Audi has not been part of the 50/50 decision," Binotto told The Race. "That was before.

"Certainly when Audi decided to join, it was for high-efficiency engines, sustainable fuel, a significant part of electrification and then the removal of the MGU-H, because Audi believed that the knowledge [of this] would have been a competitive advantage to the previous manufacturers.

"But Audi has not been part of the 50/50 discussion."

Binotto's stance made it clear that the manufacturer is open to any changes that it feels will help make F1 better.

And while mindful that self-interest will likely dictate how teams and manufacturers vote, he hoped those involved can look to the bigger picture.

"I think it would be bad if it becomes political, because I think there is the interest of everyone to make that sport the best possible," he said.

"In some situations, we need to understand we are all part of a great business, and we need to keep it great.

"So if it becomes political, I would think that whoever makes it political, is making it wrong. We need to work all together to improve it as much as we can.

"Yes, there will be solutions that may affect one team more than another. But that's part of the challenge we have."

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur also hoped that the focus will be on what is best for F1, but said it was impossible to avoid there being any impact on the competitive order from whatever changes are introduced.

"I perfectly understand that we have to fine-tune," he told The Race. "It's for the benefit of everybody, and for the benefit of the show.

"But what we have to keep in mind, and I'm not complaining at all, is that each time that you will make a small change, it will go in the direction of someone or against someone.

"When you design the engine, you decide about the size of the turbo, you decide about the size of the battery. You decide about whatever.

"So it means that we all have different characteristics, and each time that you will make a modification, even if it's marginal and you are speaking about hundredths or thousandths of seconds, it will go in the direction of someone.

"When you are in a competition, for sure we are there to get the last hundredths of seconds. We are not there to give up something."