The 2026 season brings Formula 1's biggest engine change in over a decade. The power unit is still a 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid, but the balance between its petrol-burning and electric halves has shifted dramatically, and it now runs on fully sustainable fuel. The aim is a power unit that is roughly as powerful as before, far more electrified, and far cleaner — a package designed to keep F1 relevant to road-car and energy trends while attracting new manufacturers.
The headline figure is the power split. In the previous era, the electric motor (the MGU-K) contributed a relatively modest share of total output. For 2026 the electrical contribution rises enormously, to roughly half of the power unit's output — the commonly cited target is around a 50/50 split between the internal combustion engine and the electric side. In broad terms the electric deployment is targeted at around 350 kW (roughly 470 horsepower), a very large jump over the old hybrid system. That makes energy management — how and when the battery deploys and recovers — a central part of race craft.
A key technical simplification is the removal of the MGU-H. The MGU-H was the motor-generator attached to the turbocharger that recovered energy from exhaust gases; it was powerful but complex and expensive, and a barrier to new manufacturers joining. For 2026 it is gone. To make up the lost recovery, the regulations lean more heavily on the MGU-K (which recovers energy under braking) and on managing the larger battery, which is part of why energy deployment must be used so strategically across a lap.
On the fuel side, 2026 power units run on 100% sustainable fuel. Rather than conventional fossil petrol, the fuel is made from sustainable sources — such as non-food biomass, municipal waste, or carbon captured from the air — engineered to deliver similar energy to a race engine while drastically cutting its net carbon footprint. This is a deliberate showcase: a fuel that, in principle, could run an ordinary road car, demonstrating a path to lower-carbon combustion alongside electrification.
These power-unit changes do not stand alone. They are why the 2026 cars also adopt active aerodynamics and a manual override boost for overtaking: with so much energy now electric, the car has to cut drag on the straights to spend that energy wisely, and overtaking help is delivered through battery deployment rather than a rear-wing flap. The power unit, the aero, and the racing rules were all designed together as one package. Specific output numbers, deployment limits and fuel rules are detailed and can be adjusted by the FIA, so treat the figures here as the well-established shape of the formula rather than fixed-forever values.