We’re not even a full year into the new regulations, and Formula 1 is already thinking hard about its next iteration, set to be introduced as early as the start of 2030.

This was supposed to be a big year for F1, with the introduction of a bold new technical rules package that puts far more emphasis on the electric side of the cars’ hybrid power units than before. But those rules were perhaps too ambitious for 2026, with batteries that can only power the electric motor for a tiny fraction of a lap. Such was the shock of getting it wrong that F1 may fast-track a fix for 2030 rather than 2031, when the next set of rules is currently set to start. And according to a report in Autosport, there is now some agreement on what those power units will look like.

Where are we now?

The current rules were finalized several years ago, when optimism about electrification among automakers was high. F1 wanted more of those automakers, and automakers wanted more electrification. The sport would give it to them with a near 50:50 split between a small 1.6 L V6 turbo and an electric motor, both driving the rear wheels. The idea worked. Audi, Cadillac, and Ford have all signed up since, joining Mercedes, Ferrari, and Honda, which recommitted after pulling out in 2021.

But an F1 car is of limited size, and energy density is such that the 4 MJ (1.1 kWh) battery can last maybe 11 or 12 seconds at full throttle. Meanwhile, even the shortest lap time recorded in 2026, during qualifying in Austria, took George Russell 1 minute and 6.113 seconds from start to finish. So one can see the issue. Even allowing for regenerating energy under braking, many of F1’s most classic venues lack sufficient brake zones to recharge more than a fraction of the energy demand of an entire lap.

Adding a front electric motor would have made the cars more efficient and allowed them to recapture more energy under braking. But the existing power unit manufacturers allegedly feared new entrant Audi’s expertise with all-wheel drive hybrids and blocked the idea.

Regenerative braking isn’t the only way to recharge an F1 car’s battery, though. The electric motor can also act as a generator, siphoning power from the V6 to charge the battery—this is called “super clipping.” But any power going to the electric motor is power that isn’t going to the rear wheels.

So sometimes an F1 car will have 1,005 hp (750 KW) and sometimes 536 hp (400 kW) if the battery is empty and only the V6 is powering the car. It sometimes has even less if it’s super clipping, where up to 335 hp (250 KW) is diverted to the electric motor instead of the rear wheels. And most of that is out of the driver’s control. Instead, complex and somewhat opaque algorithms are in charge, and they are supremely sensitive to driving style. More than a few times this season, we’ve seen a driver crash after a sudden torque spike they weren’t expecting.

The varying power outputs created some alarming speed differentials on track, and the sport’s organizers have tweaked the energy deployment rules somewhat for qualifying to ameliorate the problem. However, the fix has slowed the cars even more during the one part of the weekend they’re supposed to be completely flat-out.

Where do we go from here?

Next year, the V6 is being turned up to 563 hp (420 kW), while the electric motor will be turned down from 469 hp (350 kW) to 402 hp (300 kW), except in boost mode. But making the engine more powerful means making it thirstier. Unfortunately, asking teams to redesign their cars for next year to include larger fuel tanks would be prohibitively expensive for most under the current $215 million annual cost cap and would also make the cars even larger and heavier. So this week, the F1 Commission approved a plan to shorten races next year, from 190 miles (305 km) to 180 miles (290 km). In 2028, the power units will be rebalanced again to achieve a 60:40 split.

But by 2031 at the latest, it will all change again. The sport’s stakeholders—the FIA (which is in charge of the rules), FOM (in charge of the commercial rights), the teams, and the engine manufacturers—have come to a preliminary agreement. Instead of 1.6 L V6 turbos, the engines will be 3.0 L V8s, still with turbochargers. Despite a desire by some fans (and perhaps the FIA president) to bring back screaming naturally aspirated engines, it was specifically the noise that rules them out, as many of the new street circuits F1 races on have noise restrictions that would be obliterated by cars that were as loud as they were in the early 2000s.

Retaining a turbo allows F1 to claim more road relevance than a naturally aspirated engine might. So, too, does sticking with a hybrid system, but one that will be seriously downsized. Although Autosport did not provide a proposed output for the V8, we might expect just 134 hp (100 kW) of electric assist for the next generation of F1 car. There’s also no mention of whether the turbocharger will be part of the hybrid system, as it was from 2014 to 2025. Electric turbochargers are now appearing on some road cars; F1 dropped the tech in 2026 on cost and complexity grounds, with the trade-off of reintroducing turbo lag as something drivers have to anticipate.

Gratifyingly, the next F1 power units should help reverse the trend of the past two decades, which saw a car’s minimum weight (including the driver) rocket from 1,322 lbs (605 kg) in 2006 to 1,763 lbs (800 kg) in 2025 before coming down to 1,693 lbs (768 kg) for this year. The agreement says the new power units should be at least 110 lbs (50 kg) lighter than the current 408-lb (185-kg) minimum, which includes the internal combustion engine, electric motor-generator unit, turbocharger, battery pack, control electronics, and exhausts.

Some form of in-race boost is apparently still under discussion, with a preference for a limited-use power-up similar to IndyCar’s “push to pass,” which gives each driver 200 seconds of added power during a race at their discretion, as opposed to a return to the drag reduction system used by F1 until the start of this year.

Autosport says that the question of whether to introduce the new rules in 2030 or 2031 remains open. Although some voices in the sport want to see change sooner than later, for the engine manufacturers, that means writing off the current power units prematurely. This would hit Cadillac hardest, as it’s only planning to introduce its in-house V6 for the start of the 2029 season.