Wolff backs V8 return but warns on full rollback

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has backed a Formula 1 return to V8 engines from 2030 or 2031, but says the sport cannot afford to go back to a purely combustion-based formula and risk losing relevance.

Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Wolff said Mercedes was open to fresh engine regulations even though the team has made the strongest start to the 2026 season under the current rules. Mercedes has won all four races so far, with George Russell taking the opening grand prix and Kimi Antonelli following it with three straight victories.

Wolff said the attraction of a V8 is obvious for Mercedes. “We stand open for new motor regulations,” he said. “We love V8 engines. That brings back only great memories.” But he drew a clear line against a full return to the past, arguing that any new concept still needs meaningful electrical power. “A V8 engine makes a lot of revs. It then becomes a question of how we give the engine enough energy from the battery, so we don’t lose the connection to the real world.”

That point matters because the current debate is no longer about whether Formula 1 should simplify its engines, but how far it should go. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said on Sunday that V8 engines are coming back for 2030 or, at the latest, 2031, pushing a discussion that has grown since the arrival of the 2026 power units.

Those engines use 1.6-liter V6 turbos with a 50-50 split between combustion and electrical energy. They have already drawn criticism over heavy energy management, the impact of battery weight on performance, overtaking seen as too artificial and concerns about large speed differences.

Wolff's answer is a simpler hybrid rather than a total reset. He said Formula 1 should think about “making it simpler and making a megamotor out of it,” then laid out the kind of package he believes could work. “Maybe we can get 800 hp out of the combustion engine and add 400 hp on top of that. Possibly even more, from electrical energy.”

He also warned that image and cost both have to shape the next move. “If it is fully a combustion engine, we see ourselves in 2031 or in 2030 maybe looking a bit ridiculous,” he said. Wolff added that any change has to be discussed “in a structured way” because of “the reality financial-wise that car manufacturers are facing at the moment.”

That wider manufacturer pressure is helping drive the discussion. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies told The Race that Red Bull-Ford Powertrains was comfortable with the prospect despite having built its own engine project for the current rules. “As Red Bull-Ford Powertrains, we are relaxed about it,” Mekies said.

Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur has taken a similar position, with cost reduction at the center of it. He said the main parameter from the start had been cutting “the absurd budget of the engines,” calling that important for manufacturers, customers and Formula 1.

That leaves Formula 1 moving toward a significant engine rethink at a moment when the first season of the new rules has barely begun. The key question is no longer just whether V8s can come back, but whether the sport can pair them with enough electrification and lower costs to make the next generation of power units credible to both fans and manufacturers.