What should Formula 1 sound like? It’s an unusually emotional question for a sport as intensely focused on squeezing hundredths of a second out of intricately designed aerodynamics, but it’s one that could dominate the next year of paddock politics. F1 is on the cusp of perhaps its biggest ever rules shake-up, part of which […]
What should Formula 1 sound like?
It’s an unusually emotional question for a sport as intensely focused on squeezing hundredths of a second out of intricately designed aerodynamics, but it’s one that could dominate the next year of paddock politics.
F1 is on the cusp of perhaps its biggest ever rules shake-up, part of which is a brand-new engine.
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But even with these expensive new regulations dawning on the 2026 horizon, FIA president Muhammed Ben Sulayem is casting his eyes beyond.
“While we look forward to the introduction of the 2026 regulations on chassis and power unit, we must also lead the way on future technological motorsport trends,” he wrote on social media in February.
“Before regulations have even started to say, ‘Let’s look at the next engine and power unit’ I just think it makes Formula 1 look a little bit erratic.
“Any challenge that comes up is fine for us, as long as there is proper governance on how this engine is being decided upon.
“That governance is in place today, so let’s stick our heads together with all the engine manufacturers and see what it is we want to have beyond 2030 and then come up with a plan that is good for Formula 1.”
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WHAT IS GOOD FOR F1 ANYWAY?
What is ‘good for Formula 1’, however, is deeply subjective.
Up to now F1 has believed that some amount of road relevance and a tangible connection to the automotive world is good for it.
That belief has led the sport down a particular path for the last decade, and it will continue down that path until at least 2028.
That time frame is interesting, particularly in the context of F1’s popularity boom in the last five years.
An entire generation of new fans — crucial to the sport’s long-term success — has never experienced the violence of a grid of V10 engines roaring off the line. It simply isn’t integral to the spectacle for them.
Consider too that F1 has become far more family oriented in that time. Would that demographic shift still have been possible were the spectacle considerably louder?
F1 must ask whether it’s worth disrupting that connection, especially given the vast majority of fans only ever watch the sport on TV anyway.
On the other hand, a big portion of the F1 ban base fondly remembers having their ribcages rattled by the visceral spectacle of F1 as it used to be.
Some in the sport still believe the impossibly loud noise of old F1 was its best marketing tool, hammering home its extreme-sport credentials.
“It’s definitely more exciting than what we have currently,” Max Verstappen said, admitting that a switch back to V10s could prolong his career.
“I’m not in charge of the rules, but of course for pure emotion of the sport, V10 is definitely much better than what we have now.
“I remember as a kid when you walk around you hear the noise of the engines. It just brings so much more.
“Even if the speed of the car was maybe slower, just the feeling you got from an engine like that is something that you can’t describe compared to what we have now.”
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A PHILOSOPHICAL CHANGE
But the argument that might end up winning out is the philosophical one.
As the automotive world undergoes a rapid transformation and realignment, does F1 still need to work at maintaining a connection to it?
The question is particularly interesting today, with F1 more popular and lucrative than ever in its own right.
With the budget cap in place, all 10 teams are now making money — and some teams are making a lot of it via big sponsorship deals rolling into the sport.
If that money were wisely invested, the sport could make itself self-sufficient, free from the need to stay close to at least some big manufacturers for relevance.
This could be the moment F1 chooses to define itself in its own right — chooses to define what motorsport means in a changing sporting and social landscape.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is adamant that motorsport must define itself independently to survive and that synthetic fuels — carbon neutral for the way they’re made with CO2 extracted from the atmosphere — are the way to do it.
“Motorsport is our passion,” he said after taking the 1992 title-winning and synthetically fuelled Williams FW14B for a spin at Silverstone in 2022.
“It is, I think, important to find a way that we can do it responsibly in the future as well, to keep these cars and the history alive.
“You can express culture in many ways — music, arts — but our sort of culture, our way of expressing ourselves, is driving cars, racing cars, and it would be a shame if that if that was all to disappear.
“I think it’s a way to keep it alive.”
The timing and format of F1’s next engine is far more than an exercise in rule-making or technical regulation.
It’s fundamental to its future.
