The F1 Commission has chosen to sit on its hands for now – and, in the context of a brand-new rules cycle, that’s probably the most consequential decision it could’ve made.
After hearing the first tranche of team feedback on the 2026 package, the Commission concluded that “no immediate major regulatory changes were required”, with the FIA effectively signalling it doesn’t want to start sanding off sharp edges before it’s even seen how they cut in anger. The message between the lines is familiar: the paddock is noisy, the evidence is thin, and changing the goalposts this early risks creating more problems than it solves.
That’s not to say the biggest talking point of the winter has gone away. Separate discussions have continued around the new power units – and specifically the increasingly public suspicion aimed at Mercedes’ interpretation of a compression ratio grey area. Rivals have accused Mercedes of operating above the prescribed limit at operating temperature, while Mercedes has insisted, repeatedly and firmly, that it’s legal. The team’s defence is straightforward: the FIA was engaged during the power unit’s development and the concept has never been sprung as some late-game trick.
Still, the FIA has acknowledged the issue has enough heat in it to justify a harder line on how the rule is policed. A proposal has been tabled for a new compression ratio measurement test that would check for 16:1 at a 130°C operating temperature, rather than at ambient temperature as before. The key detail is timing: the idea on the table is an introduction date of August 1, potentially mid-season, and it’s set to go to an e-vote.
That timeline alone will make teams twitchy. Mid-season test changes are the kind of thing that can sound like “clarification” in the meeting room, yet feel like a competitive rebalancing once points are on the board. Even if nobody is explicitly accusing the FIA of targeting a single manufacturer, the optics are hard to ignore when the paddock has been muttering about one carmaker’s approach for weeks.
The Commission’s formal position, though, is cautious to the point of conservatism. In its wording, it stressed that initial evidence and feedback is “immature” and that premature change risks “increased instability” ahead of the first race. In other words: everyone relax, bring us data, and we’ll argue properly later.
That same “let’s not overreact” stance is being applied to another early-2026 concern: race starts. With the removal of the MGU-H and the knock-on effect of turbo lag now a realistic factor in driveability, the start procedure has become a live topic – not in the sporting sense, but in the safety one. The FIA notes that drivers will test different solutions during the current Bahrain running, with “constructive talks and proposals” already floated in the Commission meeting.
This is the stuff that tends to get solved quietly, but it matters. Starts are one of the few moments where 20 cars are tightly bunched, drivers have limited information, and tiny inconsistencies in torque delivery can cascade into big incidents. If 2026 hardware makes the first two seconds off the line less predictable, the FIA is right to be on it early – and just as right not to codify a fix until it’s seen what actually happens when drivers start leaning on the systems repeatedly.
The Commission also indicated further technical checks are coming on energy management, again scheduled around the second pre-season test in Bahrain. It’s a useful reminder that while the compression ratio debate has grabbed the headlines, the real battleground of this regulations era will be how teams harvest, deploy and manage electrical energy across a lap and across a stint. That’s where performance will be found – and where the grey areas will multiply once everyone stops sandbagging.
For now, Bahrain is doing what Bahrain always does: turning theories into evidence, and turning evidence into political pressure. The FIA’s choice not to rush through major amendments is a bet on stability over spectacle. Whether that holds once the season begins in Australia in early March will depend on what the data says – and on whether the paddock can resist the temptation to litigate 2026’s first interpretation war into a rule change before summer.
