MONACO — The new Formula 1 power unit regulations have, in their first season of operation, produced competitive variety that the sport's governing body has long targeted, with reservations about specific behavioural patterns the regulations have encouraged that the rule-makers had not fully anticipated.
The variety is real. The grid this season has produced more frequent changes in pole-position and race-win distribution than in any season for several years. The competition between the major manufacturers, which had concentrated for several years at the top of the field, has reopened in ways that the technical regulations were specifically designed to encourage.
Where the variety has shown up
The variety has shown up most visibly in the way different power unit manufacturers have approached the new regulations' design space. The regulations leave more freedom on certain technical dimensions than the prior framework did; manufacturers have used that freedom in different ways, with different competitive outcomes by circuit type.
The result has been season-long pole-position competition that has been more difficult to predict than in recent seasons. Whether the unpredictability persists as the manufacturers' development programmes converge is one of the analytical questions the next several seasons will sharpen.
The hybrid-deployment question
The hybrid-deployment behaviour that the regulations have encouraged is the part of the framework that has produced reservations from the governing body. The regulations gave manufacturers latitude on how to integrate the hybrid component with the internal-combustion component; some integrations have produced track behaviour that the regulators consider less attractive from a competitive-product standpoint.
The specific behaviour at issue concerns how the hybrid power is deployed during overtaking attempts, with several manufacturers having developed strategies that produce competitive outcomes the regulators consider less consistent with the spirit of the regulations. Whether that produces a regulatory adjustment for next season or a request to the manufacturers to adjust voluntarily is one of the open questions of the off-season.
The manufacturer-side experience
The manufacturer-side experience of the first regulatory season has been mixed. The teams whose pre-season development programmes hit the new regulations correctly have, predictably, captured the most competitive value. The teams whose programmes lagged have spent the season catching up and, in some cases, considering more substantial design changes for next season.
The catch-up has been visible in the in-season performance progression of several specific cars. Whether the progression continues into next season's relative competitiveness is one of the questions the off-season testing windows will begin to answer.
What is next
The off-season conversations will, on the published calendar, address the hybrid-deployment question through both regulatory and manufacturer-side channels. The regulatory changes that emerge are likely to be incremental rather than wholesale; the framework as a whole is, on the governing body's framing, performing well enough to justify continued operation.
The longer-cycle development under the regulations will produce, on most plausible scenarios, a more concentrated competitive distribution as manufacturer programmes converge. Whether the convergence pattern that the prior regulatory framework produced repeats under the new framework is one of the central questions of the next several seasons.
