Toto Wolff expects new engines to be postponed to 2026

Toto Wolff and Christian Horner haven’t agreed much this season, but they seem to agree to postpone the new Formula 1 engine rules by a year.

The next evolutionary stage of Formula 1 engines is to be introduced in 2025, but Red Bull team boss Horner said it made “more sense to do the job right for 2026”.

There hasn’t been much in common lately between the bosses of this year’s two World Cup protagonists who swapped jibes, but in this area they seem united.

Mercedes F1 co-owner and team principal Wolff made a statement after a meeting of representatives of the Formula 1 engines at the Red Bull Ring last weekend, which was also attended by representatives of the potential future manufacturers Audi and Porsche.

Postponing the new engines for a year would save a significant amount of money when you consider that teams will have to invest in completely new cars over the next season due to the sweeping change in regulations.

“It is possible that we could find a compromise, push the use of green gasoline a year or two and extend the current rules by a year,” said Wolff, quoted by SoyMotor.

“It is possible that everyone wants to be ready in 2026 because F1 should be an example.”

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F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who co-moderated the meeting in Austria, considered the discussions to be a “good step” in determining the way forward for 2025 and beyond – and said that the turbo-hybrid concept introduced in 2014 will remain.

“Hybrid will of course be there,” said the Italian. “The focus of the future will be more on the hybridization of our engine. The basics of all this engine will remain. “

Up until this year, when Mercedes was clearly behind Red Bull after nine races in both championships, Wolff’s team had completely dominated the turbo-hybrid era.

The Austrian added: “I don’t know what the solution will look like, but we need a drive that is also representative in the area of ​​electrification.

“But at the same time we have to develop it on a budget that is far below the current one … and that biofuels are an integral part.”

Wolff said, “For current six-cylinder engines, the path has to stand still”.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we simply optimize the electrical part together with the use of sustainable fuels. That is the right direction. “

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