New FIA rule that may stop one team dominating F1 2026 revealed

Sam Cook Thursday 29 January 2026 17:01

Photo: © IMAGO

A well-renowned F1 pundit has revealed a new FIA rule which may just stop one team from dominating the sport in 2026.

This year sees wholesale regulation changes sweeping into the sport, on the chassis side of things, and when it comes to power units, which will have a much greater emphasis on electrical energy.

It's understood that Mercedes may be in a good position to master these regulation changes, particularly when it comes to the power unit.

What's more, the first pre-season testing event in Barcelona this week has seen the Brackley-based outfit completing over 350 laps without suffering with reliability issues - although this is only reported given the shakedown in Barcelona is a private event.

While pre-season testing should never be relied upon for determining the competitive order for the season ahead, Mercedes do appear to be in good shape, and they have history of being the dominant team immediately after a regulations reset, with 2014 the last time we had rule changes to power units and aerodynamic design.

"This year there is an element of ‘if you don’t get it right first time the FIA are allowing the power units to improve throughout the year’ it’s called ADUO (additional development and upgrade opportunities).

"What it effectively means is that if the likes of Audi or Ferrari or Honda or whoever, don’t get it right they can improve their power units throughout the year, whereas in previous years they have been locked in, frozen you might say, and they haven’t been allowed to do any improvements.

"If you were Mercedes, would you then be sandbagging an awful lot not to show your hand too soon and therefore not allow some of this balance of power adjustment from your rivals to try and lift you up?"

Who are the five power unit suppliers in F1, and which teams do they supply?

Mercedes' rumoured power unit dominance over the rest of the field could help the works Mercedes team, McLaren, Williams and Alpine, with those four teams all having a Mercedes power unit in them.

Audi are joining the grid this year as both a power unit manufacturer and team, while Honda will supply Aston Martin having ended their relationship with Red Bull.

Red Bull themselves are starting a new era of power unit production, supplying themselves and Racing Bulls with engines in partnership with Ford.

The fifth power unit manufacturer in 2026 are, of course, Ferrari, who will be supplying the Ferrari works team, Haas, and Cadillac before their power unit partnership with General Motors begins in 2028.

F1 Mercedes FIA 2026 regulations