A booming return or a full-throttle failure? Could F1 return to V10 engines?
Ask any fan to describe the sport in their childhood, and those past their teenage years will remember the times of screaming engines echoing around tracks.
The soundtrack of Formula 1 has often been a topic of debate amongst fans, pundits and teams alike ever since the sport ditched the V8 engines of the late 2000s for the current 1.6L V6 turbo hybrid engines, which came into the sport in 2014.
What has reignited the V10 debates?
Autosport.com reported that the FIA hasn't ruled out the possibility of scrapping the new 2026 engine regulations in favour of bringing back V10 engines, but not the same engines we saw in 2005 when they were last used.
The new plans would potentially see the reintroduction of the V10 engine but with the same sustainability focus of the current 2026 engine regulations, where the engines would run on fully sustainable fuels. When speaking to autosport.com, FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis outlined the key questions which face the governing body around their decision.
“I think the right way around to go about it is: do we want three or four years later to go to a different type of power unit? That's question number one. That looks after the long term for the sport,” he said.
“If the answer to that is yes, then there's question number two – what we do in the intervening period. That is a secondary question compared to the primary one.” A key factor the FIA must consider is that 2026 will see two new teams enter the grid, one of which will become an engine supplier from next year, with Audi taking over the Sauber outfit and producing their power unit, and Cadillac entering the grid using a Ferrari power unit.
Are V10s feasible for 2026?
The FIA unveiled their 2026 regulations back in 2024, and ever since, the question of how much teams are focusing on the new regulations has been up for debate and speculation and with the new regulations less than a year away the likelihood is that the teams will all be focusing on their 2026 car in some fashion so a change this late in the pipeline of the team’s development for 2026 could cause chaos in the paddock.
The more feasible way to bring back a different engine powertrain, whether it be V10, V8 or V12 engines 2026 is very unlikely to be pushed forward to the teams due to it’s close proximity and therefore lack of development time from the teams so a new power unit regulation would likely come into play further down the line more likely 2028 onwards.
A dream of the past or a genuine possibility?
There have been calls for different engines in Formula 1 ever since the 2014 regulations, with fans complaining about the dull and flat nature of the turbo hybrid era’s V6 engines. There is every possibility that we could see different engines back into F1, and it’s clear that the V10 engines of the late 80s and early 2000s would be the favourable choice but a change this close to new regulations just wouldn’t make sense and would likely meet heavy backlash from the teams unless they were allowed extended development time and budget but even then a change before the 2026 regulations would be off the cards.