F1 set for another engine tweak in 2027, and what’s this about V8s?

F1 将在 2027 年再次调整引擎，关于 V8 引擎的传闻又是怎么回事？

Formula 1’s on-track racing might look a bit different in 2026 than it did in 2006 or 1986, but it’s reassuring to know that the sport’s off-track action remains as engrossing as ever. Right now, that involves F1’s stakeholders trying to get out of a corner they painted themselves into with the introduction of new V6 hybrid power units for 2026. We saw the first stab of that in Miami, with small tweaks meant to return some of the spectacle to qualifying, which succeeded. But it seems the sport is in a proactive mood, and further changes are coming to the power balance for 2027. But as we’ll see, trade-offs remain.

一级方程式赛车在 2026 年的赛道表现可能与 2006 年或 1986 年大不相同，但令人欣慰的是，这项运动在赛道之外的博弈依然引人入胜。目前，F1 的各利益相关方正试图摆脱因引入 2026 年全新 V6 混合动力单元而陷入的困境。我们在迈阿密大奖赛上看到了初步尝试，通过小幅调整旨在恢复排位赛的部分观赏性，且效果显著。但看起来这项运动正处于积极求变的氛围中，2027 年动力平衡将迎来进一步调整。然而正如我们将看到的，权衡取舍依然存在。

F1’s current technical regulations, which came into effect at the beginning of this year, have been in the works for a while. As far back as 2022, we knew there would be a greater emphasis on the electric side, a near-50:50 split with an all-new, supposedly less complex V6 turbo powered by carbon-neutral fuels, and active aerodynamics to cut drag. Two years later, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (which organizes the sport) published the final regulations. A greater emphasis on the electrical side of the hybrid system was put in place as a sop to the auto industry, and it indeed succeeded in attracting new OEMs.

F1 目前的技术规则于今年年初生效，其制定过程已持续了一段时间。早在 2022 年，我们就知道新规则将更加强调电气化，采用近乎 50:50 的动力分配，配备全新的、据称结构更简单的 V6 涡轮增压引擎（使用碳中和燃料），并引入主动空气动力学以减少阻力。两年后，国际汽联（FIA，该赛事的组织方）发布了最终规则。为了迎合汽车工业，混合动力系统中的电气化比重被进一步提高，这确实成功吸引了新的原始设备制造商（OEM）加入。

But there were early concerns that the battery capacity would be too small to feed the powerful electric motor for most of a lap. And because there can only be an electric motor at the rear axle, not the front—supposedly out of fear that new entrant Audi would have too much of an advantage—cars could regenerate just a fraction of the total energy possible under braking. The electric motor can siphon power from the V6 to recharge the battery (a process called super clipping), but any power that goes that route can’t drive the rear wheels, which could create dangerous speed differentials on track, we were told. Sadly, those warnings proved mostly correct, as was all too clear at the Japanese Grand Prix in March. Refreshingly, there appears to be no defensiveness on the part of the FIA or other stakeholders but rather a desire to respond to the complaints.

但早期人们就担心电池容量太小，无法在单圈的大部分时间里为强大的电动机供电。此外，由于电动机只能安装在后轴而非前轴（据称是担心新加入的奥迪车队获得过大优势），赛车在制动时只能回收总能量的一小部分。电动机可以从 V6 引擎中分流动力来为电池充电（这一过程被称为“超级剪裁”/super clipping），但据称，任何用于此途径的动力都无法驱动后轮，这可能会在赛道上造成危险的速度差。遗憾的是，这些警告大多被证明是正确的，这一点在三月份的日本大奖赛上表现得尤为明显。令人欣慰的是，国际汽联或其他利益相关方似乎并没有采取防御姿态，而是表现出了回应这些抱怨的意愿。

2027

2027 年

The FIA, the teams, the power unit manufacturers, and F1 Management (which controls the commercial side) have agreed—although technically only on principle so far—that for next year, the V6 will become more powerful by 50 kW (67 hp) and the electric motor will be able to deploy 50 kW less, rebalancing the power split to 450 kW (603 hp) from the V6 and 300 kW (402 hp) from the motor-generator unit. The increase in V6 power will be achieved by increasing the engine’s fuel flow. With less electrical power to deploy, the cars should maintain a higher state of charge throughout a lap. And if the power unit does require some super clipping, the additional V6 output leaves more power available to keep the car driving, reducing those speed differentials.

国际汽联、各车队、动力单元制造商以及负责商业运作的 F1 管理公司已经达成一致——尽管目前仅在原则上达成共识——即从明年开始，V6 引擎的功率将增加 50 千瓦（67 马力），而电动机的输出功率将减少 50 千瓦，从而将动力分配重新平衡为：V6 引擎提供 450 千瓦（603 马力），电机单元提供 300 千瓦（402 马力）。V6 功率的提升将通过增加引擎的燃油流量来实现。由于需要输出的电能减少，赛车在单圈过程中应能保持更高的电量状态。如果动力单元确实需要进行“超级剪裁”，额外的 V6 输出将留出更多动力来维持赛车行驶，从而减少那些速度差。

Some other changes are apparently still in discussion. The amount that the electric motor can harvest from the V6 could increase above 350 kW, and the battery capacity could be increased from 4 MJ to 5 MJ. There are still tradeoffs, though. Absent all of the synthetic fuel partners finding an extra 10 percent energy density in their fuels in the next few months, more powerful V6s with greater fuel flow will either need larger fuel tanks or shorter races. Larger fuel tanks would be preferable; if the races are shorter, everyone from F1TV subscribers to team sponsors might start wondering where their 10 percent refund is. But a larger fuel tank means a redesigned chassis that will now also be bigger and heavier—a trend the 2026 rules finally managed to reverse.

其他一些变化显然仍在讨论中。电动机从 V6 引擎回收能量的上限可能会提高到 350 千瓦以上，电池容量也可能从 4 兆焦耳增加到 5 兆焦耳。不过，权衡取舍依然存在。除非所有合成燃料合作伙伴能在未来几个月内将其燃料的能量密度提高 10%，否则功率更大、燃油流量更高的 V6 引擎要么需要更大的油箱，要么需要缩短比赛里程。更大的油箱是更好的选择；如果缩短比赛时间，从 F1TV 订阅用户到车队赞助商，所有人可能都会开始询问他们的“10% 退款”去哪了。但更大的油箱意味着需要重新设计底盘，这会导致赛车变得更大更重——而这正是 2026 年规则好不容易才扭转的趋势。

A larger-capacity battery pack would also necessitate a chassis redesign; both the fuel tank and hybrid battery are sandwiched in the middle of the car, behind the driver, ahead of the engine, and as low as possible. Redesigning the chassis takes time and money, and teams will now need to relocate resources under the sport’s tight cost cap to make that happen, particularly the teams that were planning to carry over this year’s carbon-fiber tub into next year.

更大容量的电池组同样需要重新设计底盘；油箱和混合动力电池都夹在赛车中部，位于车手后方、引擎前方，并尽可能保持低重心。重新设计底盘需要时间和金钱，车队现在必须在严格的成本上限下重新分配资源来实现这一目标，尤其是那些计划将今年的碳纤维单体壳底盘沿用到明年的车队。

What’s this about V8s?

关于 V8 引擎的传闻又是怎么回事？

Longtime F1 fans will know we haven’t been guaranteed that many exciting grands prix during a season. The cars were light and fast and noisy, but they couldn’t follow each other closely through the corners, and overtaking was so rare that the FIA first reintroduced refueling and then mandatory tire stops to artificially inject some strategy into races. But many still derived entertainment from the frequent outbreak of hostilities between the teams, the FIA, and the commercial rights holder (then Bernie Ecclestone; now Liberty Media). FIA presidents have almost always been controversial; Jean-Marie Balestre spent much of his time at war with Ecclestone and even precipitated a driver’s strike at the 1982 South African Grand Prix, and Max Mosley’s desire to teach the teams a lesson was responsible for the fiasco that was the 2005 US Grand Prix.

资深的 F1 车迷都知道，我们并不能保证每个赛季都有很多精彩的大奖赛。过去赛车轻盈、快速且噪音巨大，但它们无法在弯道中紧跟对手，超车也非常罕见，以至于国际汽联先是重新引入了加油规则，随后又强制要求进站换胎，从而人为地为比赛注入了一些策略性。但许多人依然从车队、国际汽联和商业权利持有者（当时是伯尼·埃克莱斯顿，现在是自由媒体集团）之间频繁爆发的冲突中获得了乐趣。国际汽联主席几乎总是充满争议；让-马里·巴莱斯特（Jean-Marie Balestre）将大部分时间都花在与埃克莱斯顿的斗争中，甚至在 1982 年南非大奖赛上引发了车手罢工；而马克斯·莫斯利（Max Mosley）想要“教训”车队的意图，则导致了 2005 年美国大奖赛那场惨剧的发生。

In that context, current FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s statements that the sport will move to simpler power units by 2031 don’t seem particularly objectionable. I agreed with the idea when he discussed it in 2025. At the time, it was naturally aspirated V10s, still running on synthetic carbon-neutral fuels. Now the call is for V8s, which have a little more relevance to the auto industry. Ben Sulayem is known to have the ear of the F1 drivers, who are increasingly dismayed with the highly computerized nature of their new power units. Too often, the power units behave unpredictably; the wrong gust of wind here or too much wheelspin there can convince their electronic brains to do something different than they did at that point in prior laps. And even drivers with as much talent as Max Verstappen have been caught out by a car sending all 350 kW of h

在这种背景下，现任国际汽联主席穆罕默德·本·苏拉耶姆（Mohammed Ben Sulayem）关于该项运动将在 2031 年转向更简单动力单元的声明，似乎并没有什么特别令人反感的地方。当他在 2025 年讨论这个想法时，我是赞同的。当时提议的是自然吸气 V10 引擎，同样使用合成碳中和燃料。现在呼声转向了 V8 引擎，这与汽车工业的关联度稍高一些。众所周知，本·苏拉耶姆很听取 F1 车手的意见，而车手们对新动力单元高度计算机化的特性感到越来越沮丧。动力单元的表现往往难以预测；一阵错误的风或某处的过度车轮打滑，都可能导致电子大脑做出与之前几圈完全不同的反应。即使是像马克斯·维斯塔潘这样有天赋的车手，也曾因赛车突然输出全部 350 千瓦的……（原文截断）