Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Formula 1 heads to Spa-Francorchamps under fresh warnings that the 2026 power-unit rules could turn one of the sport’s signature tracks into another energy-management race, with drivers fearing the long full-throttle sections will drain electrical deployment faster than the cars can recover it.
The sharpest concern came from Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin driver, who flagged the problem before Silverstone and said it would be just as severe in Belgium. “Silverstone and Spa, they are very thirsty on energy,” Alonso said. “If you deploy in Spa from Turn 1 [La Source] to 5 [Les Combes], it is finito for the rest of the lap.”
His warning goes beyond a simple lift-and-coast compromise. Alonso said the layout from La Source through Eau Rouge, Raidillon and the Kemmel Straight creates such a heavy demand on the battery that drivers may have to save energy early in the lap just to have any left later on. If teams choose what he called the optimal deployment, “there is one minute, sector two, with no deployment at all.”
That is the scenario worrying drivers most, because it leaves the cars effectively relying on thermal power alone for a significant stretch. Alonso said that in those conditions, “we cannot forget that this year we have significantly less power than last year and less power than F2.”
The concern has grown because Silverstone already exposed the same weakness in the regulations. Alonso said overtaking there had too often become a battery exercise rather than a test of racecraft. “You don’t need to outbrake anyone, you don’t need to overtake on the outside, you don’t need to take any risk,” he said at Silverstone. “Just press one button and you overtake if you have a better power unit than the car in front.”
Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver, expects Spa to replay that pattern. “I love Spa, but Spa is going to be another painful one, just because of the energy, like here,” Verstappen said after Silverstone. In another account of the same concern, he said Spa and Monza “will again produce the same kind of races,” calling that “a shame” because Spa is “a truly beautiful circuit.”
Oscar Piastri also extended the warning beyond one weekend, predicting that “Spa and Monza are going to be disappointed with the 2026 F1 cars.” Together, the comments from Alonso, Verstappen and Piastri point to the same problem: on tracks where long acceleration zones dominate the lap, the balance between recovery and deployment is still not where drivers want it.
The FIA has already moved to address that criticism for 2027 by reducing reliance on electric deployment. One report said the power split is set to move to 60/40 in favor of the internal combustion engine to curb the superclipping that drivers have repeatedly criticized. But that change does not help the immediate picture, leaving 2026 to carry the same questions into Spa and, after that, Monza.