The FIA has done what the FIA often does in the middle of a new technical era: it’s moved the goalposts early, then asked everyone to applaud the flexibility.
On this occasion, the World Motor Sport Council has formally ratified changes to Formula 1’s 2027 power unit regulations, locking in a shift towards a greater share of internal combustion power. The split will move to 58-42 in favour of the ICE in 2027, then 60-40 in 2028 — a clear course correction from the roughly 50-50 balance that arrived with the all-new 2026 engines running on fully sustainable fuel.
The rationale is straightforward and, in fairness, hard to argue with if you’ve watched the start of 2026 closely: the sport doesn’t want drivers routinely forced into visible energy management to make the lap work. A heavy electrical dependency can translate into “super-clipping” — cars running out of deployment at high speed — and the resulting stop-start performance profile is not what F1 sells as its premium product.
What’s more interesting is what this says about governance, and who really holds the pen when a big regulation set meets the reality of competition.
These changes had been provisionally agreed earlier this month through meetings involving the F1 Commission and the Power Unit Advisory Council. With the WMSC now rubber-stamping them into the FIA Technical Regulations for 2027 onwards, the process is effectively complete — but it underlines a familiar tension in modern F1: the sport wants stability, manufacturers want long-term certainty, and yet the system is built to accommodate “live” adjustment when the show (or the costs, or the technical direction) starts to look awkward.
The detail of the 2027 tweak is substantial. Internal combustion power will rise by around 20kW (about 25bhp), while the maximum capability from the energy recovery system will be reduced by 50kW (around 67bhp). Harvesting limits are also being pushed up by 25kW per lap, explicitly to reduce super-clipping and keep cars from bleeding performance on straights as deployment runs out.
Fuel flow is being increased by 5% to offset the extra combustion contribution, and there are further knock-ons: the regulations also include slightly reduced race distances at certain circuits and fewer pre-race reconnaissance laps. The common thread is clear enough — fuel consumption becomes more of a factor, and F1 is looking to keep the racing product sharp without pretending energy is infinite.
Then comes 2028, when the direction hardens into the full 60-40 split. Fuel flow rises by 13% overall as ICE output climbs to 450kW (about 600bhp), while maximum harvesting power increases by another 25kW per lap.
For teams, the messaging is that this is about improving the racing and smoothing the performance curve. But it’s also a reminder that the 2026 formula was always a finely balanced political compromise between performance, sustainability targets, road relevance, and the practical reality of building a hybrid package that doesn’t ask too much of the battery in race conditions.
There’s an unavoidable question, though: when does “continuous dialogue” stop looking like healthy oversight and start looking like a regulatory era that’s being rewritten on the fly?
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem framed the changes as part of an ongoing evolution rather than a course correction, stressing collaboration and the need to keep talking once the cars hit the track.
“The FIA continues to oversee the evolution of the 2026 Regulations and work closely with all key stakeholders across the motorsport community,” Ben Sulayem said. “As with every major regulatory change, the process does not end when the cars first take to the track. Continuous dialogue and collaboration are essential to ensuring that the regulations meet the needs of the sport, its drivers, and its fans.
“Together we are exploring the future direction of the championship and considering how the sport can balance innovation, sustainability, performance and fan appeal in the years ahead.”
He also confirmed that discussions have ranged beyond the immediate fix — including future power unit concepts and even the idea of V8 engines powered by sustainable fuels.
That final point matters. Not because a V8 return is suddenly imminent — nothing in the WMSC decision suggests that — but because it signals the broader political landscape around these regulations. The 2026 engine was meant to be a flagship statement: sustainable fuel, electrification, and a new hybrid philosophy. Yet within months of the first competitive laps of that era, the sport is already dialling back the electrical share and openly entertaining what comes next.
F1 will argue — with some justification — that it’s responding to what it’s seeing, not panicking. But manufacturers and teams will quietly clock the precedent: if the FIA can recalibrate the core power split this quickly, then “locked-in” no longer sounds as locked-in as the sport likes to claim.
And that’s the balancing act. These 2027/2028 changes might well improve racing, reduce the most obvious energy-saving compromises, and make the cars look more like F1 cars at full chat. But they also reinforce the sense that the governance model is now as much about managing the optics of a technical era as it is about setting rules and sticking to them.
