2026 engines, every breakage costs twice:

— The 2026 F1 engine regulations aim to balance costs and reliability, but insiders warn that too many engine failures could cripple development.

“If you took the worst case scenario, it would completely kill the development for the following year, because you would throw all your money into the power units to be taken to the track,” said Ben Hodgkinson, technical director of Red Bull Powertrains.

— From 2023, power units were included under the budget cap, forcing teams to focus on reliability to avoid overspending on repairs and replacements.

— Manufacturers like Honda and Renault have faced challenges, with an average of five engines per car in 2024. With the debut of 2026 power units, the risk of breakages increases, particularly for new entrants.

— Development opportunities for engines will be limited to specific years:
•Combustion chamber, pre-chamber, pistons, connecting rods, valves, and turbo upgrades allowed in 2027 and 2029.
•Battery and electric motor updates permitted in 2028 and 2030.

— New regulations have reduced the maximum compression ratio from 18 to 16 to prevent excessive breakages, though this adds complexity to avoiding detonation.

— Engineers face additional challenges with new detonation monitoring rules. Internal pressure sensors in cylinders are banned, replaced by accelerometer-based vibration sensors.

“The motorists already present have the correlation between these two data samples for each engine, each track and each driver of the last 10 years,” Hodgkinson explained.

— Longstanding manufacturers hold an advantage due to their extensive historical data and experience correlating pressure and vibration sensors, giving them a head start over new entrants.

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VIA: [formulapassion]