FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has revealed the first technical bones of Formula 1's next-generation V8 engine, declaring the move away from the current hybrid V6 a "no-brainer" and naming hard targets for displacement, rev limit and hybrid split.
The V8 plan has been the worst-kept secret in the paddock, but Ben Sulayem's intervention this week is the first time the FIA has put numbers on the page. The headline, by his calculation, is an engine producing roughly 880 horsepower combined, with the internal-combustion side doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
"Having a 10% [energy split], you will get to 880 horsepower, but then the car [gas engine] will be about 650 hp, I think," Ben Sulayem said. The hybrid contribution, he added, will be deliberately constrained: "It will be that [a 10% to 20% electric power split], it's not more than that. Not at all."
That is a pointed contrast with the 2026 rules, which split power roughly 50-50 between the internal-combustion engine and the electric motors and have been blamed for the so-called "power clipping" that has frustrated drivers in the early races. Crucially, the FIA also plans to dump the MGU-H, the troublesome turbo-driven electric harvester that became one of the defining engineering challenges of the hybrid era.
"The MGUH was, at the time, the future, but now it's not," Ben Sulayem said.
On the engine itself, he set out displacement and rev-limit boundaries that engineers can already start working with.
"You can't get the power with less than a 2.5- or 2.6-liter, so you're talking about between 2.6- to 3.0 liters," he explained, before adding a clear ceiling for revs: "You don't want it to be over 15,500 to 16,000 rpm."
"If you make it simple, others can afford it," he said. "We're talking about easier to build, cheaper, and reliable units… really, it is a no-brainer."
It is also a move that quietly distances the FIA from the all-electric orthodoxy that has dominated motorsport politics since the launch of Formula E. Ben Sulayem was unequivocal about that.
"With all due respect, electrification is not the only solution," he said.
The target window is now the most aggressive part of the plan. The FIA has previously suggested 2031 for the V8 introduction, but Ben Sulayem indicated he wants to bring that forward by a full year if the manufacturers can be convinced.
"It will happen in 2031, but I want to bring it one year earlier," he said.
For the manufacturers committed to the 2026 rules — Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda, Audi, Red Bull Powertrains and the new V6 from Cadillac — that timeline is now the headline figure to lobby for or against. With sustainable fuel already locked in for both the 2026 and post-2030 generations, the V8 era will not be a sound-and-fury throwback but a deliberately downsized, cheaper, lighter engine designed to put the driver back at the centre of the show.
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