The FIA has sketched out a significant rebalancing of Formula 1’s new-generation power units for 2027, with an agreed direction that nudges performance back towards the internal combustion engine and away from the electrical side of the hybrid package.
In an online meeting attended by team principals, FOM and power unit manufacturer representatives, the governing body confirmed that a set of hardware-related changes to the 2026 rules has been agreed “in principle” — but with the clear caveat that the final detail still needs to be fought through in the technical working groups before anything is signed off.
The core of the 2027 concept is straightforward, and it’s hard not to see it as a response to what F1 has been learning in real time since the new rules landed: the FIA wants a nominal increase in ICE power of around 50kW, enabled by a fuel-flow increase, alongside a nominal reduction in ERS deployment power by roughly the same margin.
That kind of swap matters. It’s not just a tweak to a spreadsheet; it changes how drivers can race, how teams can defend, and how predictable the cars are at the end of straights when battery state becomes the hidden hand behind lap time. Even the FIA’s own language points in that direction — the goal is to “enhance fair and safe competition” while keeping the system “intuitive for drivers and teams”.
The timing is telling, too. The meeting began with a review of the amendments introduced for the Miami Grand Prix — the latest stop in a run of quick-turn changes delivered largely via software, aimed at improving safety and reducing “excessive harvesting”. The FIA’s verdict on those Miami modifications was positive: better competition, a step in the right direction, and no material issues or safety concerns identified.
Miami, in other words, didn’t trigger an alarm; it reinforced a trend. When a regulation set needs repeated little corrections to stop teams gaming energy recovery in ways that distort racing, you eventually arrive at the bigger question: is the balance right in the first place?
The FIA isn’t pretending the job is finished after one weekend, either. It says evaluation of the Miami package is ongoing, with further adjustments under consideration for future events — including start-safety revisions and measures designed to improve safety in wet conditions. There’s also a note that improved visual-signalling measures are being evaluated for the Canadian Grand Prix, which hints at the FIA continuing to tidy up the operational side of how this new era is managed at trackside.
But the headline remains the 2027 direction of travel. By adding power back into the ICE — and explicitly pairing that with a reduction in ERS deployment — the FIA is effectively acknowledging that the sport can’t rely on electrical deployment as the defining performance lever without side-effects. Harvesting requirements and deployment limitations don’t just influence lap time; they influence wheel-to-wheel behaviour. They shape how vulnerable a car is when it runs out of usable electrical energy, how easy it is to time an overtake, and how consistent the performance is for the driver trying to judge gaps at 330km/h.
There’s also a political reality here: this wasn’t presented as one party’s victory. The FIA stressed there was “unanimous commitment” around the need for changes that serve competition and safety, and noted the proposals were built through consultations over the past few weeks, including input from the drivers. That last point shouldn’t be overlooked. Drivers have been the ones living with the most visible knock-on effects of the energy-management swings — at starts, in close fights, and in those uncomfortable moments when a car’s behaviour changes because the system demands harvesting rather than allowing the driver to simply race.
None of this is fully locked in yet. The FIA says the next step is further detailed discussion in technical groups, followed by formal presentation of refined regulatory changes for a World Motor Sport Council e-vote — but only once the power unit manufacturers have voted on the package. That sequencing matters: it tells you the FIA wants this to land as a consensus product, not a governance hammer blow, even if the direction itself is already clear.
For all the talk of “spirit of collaboration” — a phrase the FIA deliberately leaned on, reminding everyone that the 2026 regulations were developed alongside the FIA, FOM, teams, OEMs and PU suppliers — the subtext is familiar. When F1 changes its engine formula, it never really stops changing it. The sport finds the sharp edges once the cars are racing for real, and then the politics, safety concerns and racing priorities start sanding them down.
The Miami weekend, it seems, was the moment the FIA decided sanding wouldn’t be enough. The 2027 proposal is an attempt to change the grain of the material.
