Drivers reveal downshifting and lift-and-coast demands of new F1 engines

The new F1 engines will see the drivers having to downshift on straights and engage in lift and coast, but the drivers aren’t concerned about it taking away from the challenge of Formula 1.

The new 1.6-litre V6 hybrids require significantly more energy management than the previous generation, with the new units increasing electrification to a near 50/50 split with the internal combustion engine.

New F1 2026 cars ‘very different’ to drive

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The Barcelona test last week was the first opportunity for the F1 drivers to get to grips with the new cars on a real track, after spending the last year or two getting a flavour for them via simulator work.

The new power units remove the MGU-H as part of the electrical hybrid system, with the MGU-K’s power output boosted significantly as it is set to deliver 350kW, up from 120kW under the previous regulations.

Keeping the battery charged to allow for efficient power delivery thus requires the drivers to engage in significant energy management while on track.

The worst-case scenario suggested that drivers would have to engage in unnatural practices such as downshifting going down long straights, as well as lots of lift and coast (ie. lifting off the throttle approaching braking areas to allow the car’s aerodynamics to slow the car), practices that seem at odds with the flat-out nature of driving a car as quickly as possible around a race track.

On Monday, several drivers spoke to the media about the sensation of driving the new cars, with Mercedes’ George Russell confirming that there will be cases of downshifting on straights, but downplayed any concerns about it being a negative.

“That will probably continue to be the case, but it doesn’t feel that abnormal, to be honest,” he said.

“The way I would describe it is like if you’re driving your car up a hill, you’re still going flat out, but you’re losing a bit of speed, and you may just downshift to give you a bit of extra revs to get up that hill.

“That’s how it sometimes feels when the engine is harvested, and you’re really regenerating the battery.

“So there are occasions that you can downshift at the end of the straight, even while you’re flat out. But it felt more bizarre in the simulator than it did in reality, to be honest. I spoke with a few other drivers, and we actually commented on the same. So that was quite intuitive.”

Haas‘ Esteban Ocon enthused about the relentless acceleration out of corners, saying he could scarcely believe just how quickly he was able to get up to top speed, and explained that energy deployment will be hugely critical for drivers achieving optimal laptimes.

“It is obviously very different to drive, compared to how it was in 2025 and the years before,” he said, acknowledging that the new cars will be “energy-starved”.

“But the good news is it’s still a race car, you know. I was expecting that we would have to work so much on the hybrid power and try to get everything correct… which is the case, for sure, you need to get everything correct or otherwise, the lap time is not there at all.

“But it’s actually been all right, we’ve learned a lot in these days. We’ve moved so much more forward than where we started. It’s been quite crazy, the learning curve, and there’s still a lot to do. But yeah, we have a very clear direction of what to do with the car.

“Though the run, here I had too much deployment, and here, not enough. Here, we didn’t have the right launch mode at the start of the lap. We were like, five meters too late, five meters too early. It makes a big, big difference. We need to be very consistent with what we do with our inputs. Otherwise, it has big consequences on the system and on how it’s learning what you are doing.

“The other thing is obviously how much power you have on exit. So we need to be very careful to not kill the tyres completely, because it’s so much more than it was before, and at the moment, we have less grip than we had in the last couple of years.”

Ollie Bearman echoed his teammates’ thoughts and said that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya may be one of the more “extreme” examples, given the relative lack of regeneration opportunities with few significant braking zones.

Explaining that he was suitably impressed by the nimbleness of the lighter cars, and the “incredible amount of downforce” being generated by the new active aerodynamic regulations, he did say the amount of energy management was something that had caught his attention.

“The annoying thing is definitely the energy management, the clipping, and all of these things. It’s definitely more than what we’ve been used to,” he said.

“But that’s a given, considering the reliance on the electrical, as opposed to the previous generation. So to be expected. But, actually feeling it in reality for the first time is a little bit sad, one of those things.”

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli labelled the acceleration up to 350kph as “quite brutal”, and said it’s unfortunate that that power output doesn’t remain in place all the way down a straight.

“It doesn’t last the whole straight, unfortunately, but it still feels nice to drive,” he said.

“Obviously, it will depend on track to track. I think Barcelona is still nice, deployment-wise. But when we go to Monza, which is very energy-hungry, it might be a bit of a different story.

“Depending on the track, it might require some lift-and-coast, even in qualifying, which is a bit more unnatural to do, because obviously in qualifying, you just think to go as fast as possible.

“But it’s something that we will have to learn, especially because the battery is so sensitive to the driving style as well. It seems that way at the moment.

“So, depending on your input, it can change the deployment that you get in the next straight. So it’s been a massive learning experience so far.”

How will drivers cope with the energy management?

One concern, aside from the requirements demanded of the drivers while on-track, is just how much lap-time will be influenced by decisions made by the engineers, both when preparing the car to go on-track, and the instructions issued to the drivers on a lap-by-lap basis.

Ocon revealed that it’s actually not as complex as one might think, due to the level of automation built in for energy recovery.

“In terms of radio comms and the energy deployment at the end, we just select a strategy that is meant to be the optimum from our simulations and from Ferrari’s simulations,” he said.

“Then you just drive the car, and it does it for you. We’re not doing anything ourselves. I’m not pressing any buttons to deploy or recharge the battery. It’s all automated. It tells you everything – when you should do certain things to save a bit more battery. Then, if anything is unclear, the team will know straight away.

“So I would say, unless it goes wrong, it’s 100 per cent the strategy, the automation, and the car doing its own thing. There are definitely differences that the drivers can make. About turbo lag, correct gear usage is important, and just driving correctly is important. But other than that, not really much we can add or take away from the car.

“The car itself is quite nice to drive because it slides a bit more. It’s a bit more like the 2020’s zero, where it was a bit less snappy and a bit more comfortable at high speed. It’s catching you less, I would say. So, on that side of things, it was quite nice to drive.

“I think we [as drivers] are going to have more input prior to the session, to put the deployment where we want and where it’s exactly important to do it and more efficiently, and how we feel quicker with that.

“Once the session starts, it’s all up to the engineers to make it work, really. So I would say it’s 20 per cent on us, 80 on the engineers. To drive, you need to respect it.

“But we are having such very good tools at the moment to respect everything that we have to do that it’s not that complicated to follow.

“On a quali-style run, we are doing like lift and coast and stuff, that’s a very new thing to do. But, honestly, from the simulator, it took me one run to do it.

“It’s actually quite odd now to not do it. There is that much that we drove with lift and coast, and having got used to doing that style of driving, and also it makes sense with the car, because, if you stay full throttle, you are basically losing a lot, you are basically putting on the handbrake at the end of the straight, and, if you lift and coast, it’s not that much, so you feel quicker if you lift off.

“So yeah, it feels quite natural because it’s the fastest way of driving. Obviously, it’s very different to normal, but I felt that was quite natural by the end. Obviously, in Barcelona, let’s see another track…”

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Will the new cars ‘still be F1’?

With the new F1 cars requiring energy management that brings it closer to the type of driving that has been prevalent in the all-electric Formula E championship over the last decade, a major rhetoric that has emerged amongst fans and observers is that the new power units don’t align with what might be expected from Formula 1.

But Ocon dismissed this idea, saying, “I think it is because it’s still the fastest cars in the world. If you find quicker cars around in other categories, let me know. But I don’t think that’s the case.

“We have to optimise as drivers with the tools we have to go as fast as we can, and if that’s the quickest way to go around the track, well, that’s what we are going to have to do.

“When you are in the car, it’s quite straightforward, because it feels like the quickest way to go around. So maybe it’s not going to be the fastest way in every track, but at least in Barcelona, it was, on our side.

“Of course, lifting is not something that you get told when you’re in go karts, lift just before the corner to go quicker, for sure, but it was still enjoyable to drive, and still an F1 car. So that’s how it is.”

Russell said different eras of F1 have always required different ways of managing the power output of the cars, and that the increased electrification for 2026 is just the modern iteration of that.

“It definitely still is Formula 1,” he said.

“It still very much feels like a racecar, and you’re still very much pushing the limits, but you are driving it differently. But if you look back to the late 1980s and ’90s, and you look at Ayrton Senna’s driving style, where he’s blipping the throttle through the apex is to spin the turbo, that’s also a unique way of driving, and also in the same way as when you went from a gear stick to paddles on the back of your steering wheel, it’s just different, and it changes.

“I think it’s important to remember, this is test one of a multi-year cycle of these power units and, if we look at how much progress the previous generation of engines made, from 2014 to 2025, the power difference, the drivability, the energy management in the previous V6 hybrid made, I think we’re going to see big improvements over the course of this year.”

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