Is Formula 1 not doing enough to promote the new hybrid engines? According to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, speculation about a V10 return is not helpful.
Will the premier class return to classic V10 engines in the future? After Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem recently publicly considered such a scenario, Toto Wolff is now putting the brakes on such mind games.
“There are two aspects,” says the Mercedes team principal, explaining: “First, we should be excited about the new rules that will come into force next year. We should be promoting them. This is our sport. It’s important to think positively about such an exciting engine coming into the car.”
Although the new engine regulations in Formula One will not take effect until 2026, with the electric component set to be increased again, there is already public speculation about what might happen in the following regulatory cycle from 2030. Wolff is concerned about this.
“We are redefining the limits of battery technology in terms of sustainability,” he emphasizes, adding: ”[2026] is the first year in which we will be using 100 percent sustainable fuels. Nobody knows where this will all lead.”
“And it’s really exciting that Formula One is leading the way,” says Wolff, who clarifies: ‘So all of us as stakeholders should really welcome this and ensure that the sport is perceived as highly technological as it has to be, and is guided less by opportunistic considerations.’
Wolff: We need to have conversations, but not now
The Austrian is therefore of the opinion that Formula One should do more to promote the new generation of engines and their advantages. Meanwhile, the second point Wolff reminds us of is that the engine regulations are now fixed until 2029 anyway.
In the course of the following years, it will be necessary to discuss what comes after that,“ says Wolff, who, in addition to a V10 comeback, could also imagine a return to the V8, because it ‘might be more relevant for the road than a V10.’
”I think that’s also an exciting discussion to have. What kind of hybrid system could play this role? Will the sound get louder?” Wolff said, but also made it clear that he currently considers it ‘a bit premature’ to talk publicly about such things.
The Mercedes team principal warns: ”We run the risk of diluting the message to the world if we talk about something that comes later a year before we’ve even started with these new, exciting rules.”
Expert Ralf Schumacher also reminds Sky that Formula 1 did not once again opt for hybrid power in the 2026 engine regulations for no reason, “but also to generate new partners, new engine partners, in this case Audi.”
Among other things, it was a concession to the German manufacturer, which is entering Formula 1 with its own works team including an engine in 2026, “that the electric share has been increased in the course of all this electric mobility,” said Schumacher.
What advantages a return to the V10 would have
Nevertheless, the former Formula 1 driver, who raced in the premier class in the 1990s and 2000s, hopes “that we will have these engines again, like in my day, where there are really 900 hp in one go or even 1,000 and not just some batteries or turbochargers for only a few seconds.”
The hope here is above all for sustainable gasoline. Last year, Stefano Domenicali explained that if “functioning sustainable fuels” were available, “then we would have to evaluate very carefully whether to continue with the hybrid or whether there are better solutions.”
If Formula 1 were to actually move away from hybrid engines in the future, Schumacher believes that would have several advantages. One point is the sound that many fans miss from the early days, but the cars would also be “lighter and therefore safer” again, emphasizes Schumacher.
Many people in the paddock share Schumacher’s point of view. World Champion Max Verstappen, for example, stated as early as 2023 that he would “definitely get rid of the hybrid,” and his Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also recently stated: “The purist in me would like to see us go back to a V10.”
Toto Wolff, such statements are probably more of an eyesore (at least at the moment).
