Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Ayao Komatsu has warned Formula 1 not to let its push to fix the 2026 engine formula blow apart the budget cap, saying proposed 2027 power-unit changes could add another $5 million to $10 million per team.
Speaking in a media session in Canada, the Haas team principal said cost control had to be the first concern as the FIA and F1 management consider a move toward a roughly 60/40 split between combustion and electrical power. The changes under discussion have centered on increasing the role of the V6 and reducing reliance on electrical deployment after the opening phase of the 2026 rules cycle exposed problems with the new package.
“What I would like the FIA and F1 management to hear from the teams’ point of view is the issue of cost,” Komatsu said. “It is ridiculously expensive. These power-unit regulations are already so expensive, so doing certain things for next year’s regulations... if it is going to cost each team five million or ten million extra, that is certainly not the right direction for us. From the teams’ side, we need to simplify and reduce costs in all areas.”
Komatsu’s warning goes beyond the engine itself. He said the direction being discussed for 2027 could trigger expensive knock-on changes through higher fuel flow, lower energy limits and possible battery-related revisions, with consequences for fuel tanks and the chassis as well. That is the fault line for teams already trying to contain spending inside the cost cap while developing around a new rules era.
The debate has grown out of issues seen since the start of 2026, when the new power units produced heavy reliance on electrical energy, unusual battery-recovery driving and concerns about speed differences. The FIA already introduced tweaks for the Miami Grand Prix to ease some of the immediate problems, but broader changes have remained under discussion for 2027.
One idea on the table has been a one-time rise in the budget cap to help teams absorb the cost of adapting their cars. Komatsu rejected that approach outright.
“That’s the problem. I don’t want to increase the budget cap,” he said. “The budget cap this year is already much higher. And then if you add another reason to increase it by another two million or five million, then it is no longer a budget cap.”
Komatsu did leave room for targeted adjustments if they stop short of rewriting the whole package. He said the scale of the change is what matters, and that meaningful improvements are still possible even with 2027 cars already under development, as long as F1 avoids altering the homologated power-unit architecture, the fundamental design or the battery size.
He pointed to the Miami changes as the model. Haas, he said, has already tried to support rule tweaks that address safety concerns, performance gaps and overly sensitive areas of the regulations without punishing teams that had already done a good job on the existing concept. That leaves F1 with a narrow path into 2027: improve the racing without turning the fix into another budget-cap exception.