The Miami Grand Prix was the first to undergo changes that slightly limited the role of electric power that has redefined racing this year. The president of the governing body, the FIA, said in Miami that he wants to bring back traditional V8 engines within a few years.
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F1 began the year with some of the biggest changes in its 76-year history, headlined by a 50-50 split of power between a traditional motor and onboard battery.
There were only three Grand Prix races under those new rules before a package of adjustments were introduced that curbed the influence of electric power. They responded to drivers’ criticism by promoting pure driving skill over electric charging, especially in qualifying. Discussions about further changes for 2027 could continue that trend.
Sunday’s race in Miami was one of the most open in recent F1 history, with drivers from four different teams leading before Kimi Antonelli took his third win of 2026 for Mercedes.
V8 engines would take F1 into the future
When FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem first proposed a return to big, noisy traditional engines last year, some F1 figures thought it was an electoral tactic and he failed in a meeting with manufacturers.
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Now, with Ben Sulayem in office for another term, and following a backlash against electric power from some key drivers and fans, his push for V8 engines by 2030 or 2031 looks much more serious. The F1 world typically plans new regulations years in advance.
“You get the sound, you get less complexity and then you get lighter weight, you hit all the boxes,” Ben Sulayem said Saturday in Miami. “You will find out very soon and it will be with very, very small electrification, but the main one will be the engine.”
F1 has used V6 engines with hybrid-electric power since 2014 and a big increase in the amount of electric power for this year has made it a central element of the way drivers compete. Synchronizing the electrical impulse and recharging is the key to tactical racing. Four-time champion Max Verstappen hates him so much that he questioned his future in F1.
A return to larger V8 engines would be a nostalgia trip for older drivers and fans, with a distinctive engine noise. They are relatively rare in modern vehicles, aside from expensive sports cars.
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Using sustainably sourced fuel, as F1 already does starting this season, would be a concession to environmental objectives.
FIA says carmakers can’t hold sport ‘hostage’
There is a lot of politics behind decisions about the future of F1, from the White House to the racing paddock.
Electric vehicles no longer appear to dominate the roads in key F1 markets as they did when the FIA and teams began drawing up regulations in the early 2020s.
The Trump administration has imposed stricter rules on the charging network that electric vehicles rely on, and the European Union is reconsidering a planned ban on new internal combustion cars starting in 2035.
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“The political landscape has changed,” the FIA’s head of F1 regulations, Nikolas Tombazis, told reporters last week. “When we discussed the current regulations, the car companies, who were very involved, told us that they would never make another internal combustion engine again, a new one, that they were going to phase it out and that in any year they would be completely electric. Obviously, this has not happened.”
Ben Sulayem said the FIA would need agreement from engine manufacturers to push for V8 engines by 2030, ahead of the five-year timetable agreed for current cars, but would have more freedom to act without their agreement by 2031.
The world of F1 has long attracted automakers by promising relevant innovations for their road cars, but now the FIA seems less interested in making F1 cars look like everyday drivers. F1’s rise in popularity around the world over the past decade could give it more influence.
“We need to protect the sport from the global macroeconomic situation, which means we cannot be hostage to whether car companies decide to be part of our sport or not,” Tombazis said.
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“We want them to be a part of our sport, absolutely. That’s why we’ve worked so hard to ensure that new ones participate. But we also can’t be in this position where, if they decide they don’t want to be, we’re just left vulnerable.”
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Alanis Thames in Miami Gardens, Florida, contributed to this report.
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AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing