Sainz and Leclerc say they don't like what they have seen for the 2026 car and engine developments, would like a V10 comeback: "Most of us share the same opinion."
Cars have gotten bigger and safer. Sure, the engine is heavy but it isn't massive battery packs causing that. A naturally aspirated V10 is a dinosaur, I've no interest in dead end tech. We must keep at least the kinetic recovery and electric turbos imo. Lithium is light even, lets make that part a monster
Agree. This is an opportunity to improve the current regs, not regress to outdated technology. Literally the anti-thesis of F1
Technology making cars faster is what f1 is about. The v10 made 1,000 hp and weighed 120kg, the motor & engine in today's cars make about 1,000hp but weigh close to 200kg when battery, motor, and engine are considered.
Electric turbos are amazing and F1 should push for efficiency, as that's way more relevant than "synthetic fuels" imo. Something to consider is that as long as cars are fueled for the whole race, engine efficiency also reduces weight. Per this article
In the V8 era, thermal efficiency peaked at 29%. With the introduction of the V6 turbo-hybrids in 2014, that figure leapt almost immediately to around 40% - and it now stands at over 50%.
If efficiency drops from 50% to 40% for example, because of the removal of MGU-H, engines will need 25 kg more fuel to deliver the same amount of energy.
The v10 may be dead as a passenger engine but for a race engine it's still superior.
Electric motors and batteries have less performence per kg compared to an engine and fuel. If rules were changed and teams were allowed 300KG for an engine, fuel, motor, and battery you'd see teams use motors and batteries even less than then they do now.
There is precisely zero cross over to real world road cars with the current engines and also for the '26 engines. If you are driving on roads such that energy recovery can be useful then you're driving dangerously. These engines are only applicable to race cars. Audi insisting on the engine regs to make them road relevant is utter BS. They are never going to release an A3 with such an engine.
I'd love a return to V10's because they are fun, powerful and light. Reduce the size of the cars whilst we're at it -current cars look like saloon cars next to cars of the past and it's hindering racing.
In my eyes the main problem here is that they are discussing this now, less than one year away from when the next regulations are supposed to come into force. That's simply stupid. If they now completely do away with what has been planned, Audi will probably need to fall back onto Ferrari engines.