12 F1 drivers, including World Champions, race winners and podium finishers, have raised the alarm about how bad the 2026 British GP will be thanks to the engine regs this year.
Earlier in the year, Suzuka proved to be a terrible weekend for the sport as superclipping completely ruined the qualifying session, despite the best efforts of F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali to downplay genuine concerns.
Ollie Bearman’s serious accident in the race thanks to a huge speed difference caused by superclipping for Franco Colapinto was further conformation of how badly thought out these engine regulations were.
While the FIA and teams have agreed to changes in 2027 and 2028, Silverstone, Spa and Monza are three of the next five rounds and there will be lots of clipping at those tracks.
Alongside the superclipping, Copse and Maggots + Becketts are expected to be medium-speed corners thanks to the lack of battery when they reach that section this weekend. It is a far cry from the immense challenge they have been in previous generations of cars.
For this weekend, the recharge limit in qualifying will be 6.5MJ.
2026 engine regs to dilute Silverstone F1 challenge
During media day, there was plenty of strong opinions from the drivers on what will unfold this weekend. A number of them were disappointed and gutted at how much the 2026 engine regs are going to ruin the thrill of driving this legendary British venue.
Lewis Hamilton:
“Honestly, I think [the change in experience] is going to be huge.
“If you look at the speed traces, we start losing deployment going into Copse.
“So Copse, normally engine’s screaming as you go into Copse and you’re holding on for dear life as you go through there flat out. This year, the engine will be coasting down most likely.
“We’ll be downshifting from [eighth to seventh] whilst full throttle, trying to keep the engine revs higher, and it’ll be a long, long straight from 9 to 10 with no deployment, basically.
“And then Maggots and Becketts is just not going to feel the same. Because I think you have to lift and coast or something through there for a period of time. So, it’s just a completely different track.
“I mean, we’ll see tomorrow. No doubt we’ll still get to enjoy it through certain elements of the track where you’re not power limited, but the best part of the track is those Maggots and Becketts and Copse and Stowe, and in those places the power is just dropping.
“So, I hope it’s something they can rectify for next year.”
Alex Albon:
“There aren’t really many high-speed corners anymore in Formula 1. You arrive so slowly to them that the speeds themselves are low.
“So you would think of Silverstone as a high-speed track, but actually, if you look at the corner speeds now, it’s more of a medium-speed circuit.
“So I think there’s been some talk on what we can do last minute just to help some of this deployment going into especially sector two.
“Once you get through Turn 6-7, and you lack any braking all the way into Turn 15, clearly the battery’s pretty depleted very quickly and then you’re struggling from there on.
“Not boring [in terms of driving]. It’s just that Silverstone has always been special. It’s less special when you don’t have the kind of speed that you feel through some of the high-speed corners.”
Carlos Sainz:
“Probably the most difficult one up until now for this concept of engine.
“The simulator was pretty shocking as he [Max Verstappen] would say. Which was just a clear sign and understanding that whatever we came up with for this year is not good enough.
“And that’s why the regs change was necessary for next year. Because a great race track like this being a bit not spoiled but downgraded because of the way you do an engine. It is not what F1 should be about and that’s why all the changes are happening for next year and the following year.
“Well you basically run out of energy and power very quickly into the high speed. And because there’s a combination of very high speed corners you don’t harvest any battery.
“So you’re only sitting on I don’t know how many horsepower the car has without the electric. You’re obviously a lot slower through the high speed and you don’t have as much power and as much momentum through it.
“So it’s quite a bit down on last year.”
Max Verstappen:
“You know, I don’t want to keep being too negative about it. Being in close contact with F1, the FIA, everyone is trying to do their best.
“It’s just that because of how we generate our power nowadays, this track layout, unfortunately, is not suited for it because of all the continuous long straights, fast corners, you don’t really dab the brake or whatever, so you can’t really recharge enough.
“When you rely only on the ICE, you don’t have enough power. So in a lot of places around the lap, you basically just slow down a lot because that layout is just not made for the current formula of the engine. I think it’s just as simple as that.
“Of course, in some tracks, we also have a lot of long straights, like last week, but there is a braking zone you can recharge a bit and use it again. Unfortunately here, that’s not really the case.
“Some corners are completely different than last year, for example, and that also makes it a lot more easy to get around the lap, but at the same time, it’s quite painful because all your inputs matter even more.
“It’s just, what can I say, not the most exciting, unfortunately.”
Fernando Alonso:
“Charging station [Copse + the Maggots and Becketts section].
“I think when you have the derate on the corner, it is a worse experience than just at the end of the straight. Because you used to have, in your memory, you used to remember those corners being very challenging and you used to feel the G-forces and you are physically demanding into those corners. And now it is much slower, so it is different.
“The problem when you derate on the corners is also that your drag level is higher, you have the rolling resistance from the tyres turning the wheels, so you lose the speed by the pure drag of the car, but you lose extra speed because you are turning the car, so it doubles the affect on the corner.”
Oscar Piastri:
“I’ve seen the speed traces from the sim and I’ve got a few driven on the sim. I didn’t quite have the same reaction as Max on the sim, but I had a reaction as well.
“But these are the kind of circuits where these engines really struggle, where you’ve got long straights, quick corners where you can’t reach out to the battery in between, which, unfortunately, that’s basically Silverstone. And what makes it so special is all the high-speed corners.
“So we’ll see for sure tomorrow. It’s certainly not going to be better than it was last year.”
Liam Lawson:
“Yeah, it’s [Silverstone is] just very different this year].
“When you have a section of straights that are following each other and there’s no corners to harvest any energy, so from turn 7 all the way to here, the last couple of corners of the track, you’re pretty much full throttle, and there’s not many places where you’re lifting.
“And if you are, it’s very briefly, so there’s just not enough energy. So it’s pretty dramatic.
“Yeah, I think this will be more dramatic than Suzuka.”
Sergio Pérez:
“I think it’s going to be very different.
“The last circuits we haven’t really thought about it, you know, like we haven’t really spoken about the change in regulation, but I think this is a circuit where we will be noticing quite a bit, because there is really not much harvesting around the lap. You’re not braking much.
“So yeah, I think we will find out in FP1, but I do expect a very different Silverstone to the one that we were used to, unfortunately.”
Charles Leclerc:
“Yeah, I think most of the drivers feel probably a bit sad, seeing the trace, also trying the track at the simulator.
“These were tracks where we were actually, I think the bravest one in qualifying will make a difference, because you get into the high-speed corners with quite a lot of power, and you need to play with the limits of the car at very high speed.
“Now the high-speed corners are more medium-speed corners, because we have a lot of clipping, so I don’t know exactly what to expect.
“I have an idea, but I’m pretty sure it won’t feel as special as it used to be.”
Ollie Bearman:
“This track [with the clipping], it’s a shame because, you know, a lot of the tracks with the most character in the previous generation, the fast flowing high speed circuits now just lack reward when driving them and that hurts a bit.
“And one of maybe the ballsyest sections of track of the whole year, which was Maggots and Becketts, this year it seems to be just one corner.
“And the bits before, you’re going so slow because you don’t have any power, it’s not actually a corner anymore. So, that’s tough.”
Franco Colapinto:
“I think generally it’s a track that you always love driving at and that it pushes the F1 cars to the limit.
“I think before the year started we already knew that Silverstone, Australia, Japan, Suzuka were going to be tracks that were going to be difficult with energy and that we were running out with so long straights and with no braking at all almost.
“It’s like you’re flat for 2km or something like that. It’s going to be difficult.
“And I think these corners are going to become less of a corner almost.”
Esteban Ocon:
“It’s quite energy starved, to say the least.
“I think if you go from the start-finish to Turn 7, it’s not too bad. But after that it gets really difficult. After Turn 9 you basically have no power.
“So it takes a while to get to Maggots and Becketts. Unfortunately, you don’t really have much of a challenge in Turn 11, 12.
“Then when you get to Turn 13, yes, it’s a small break. But you arrive so slow that it’s all flat out, basically.
“It’s probably the most extreme one we’ve driven in a while. I would say maybe Suzuka was also a lot of clipping, especially after the Spoon, the two left and the long straight. It might be quite one of the extreme ones.”
