FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has teased imminent news about Formula 1's long-awaited return to V8 engines in the next decade, saying "watch this space."
F1 looks set to switch back to simpler, louder engines by the end of the current rules cycle, which runs until the end of 2030, although there has been nothing official signed off yet.
F1 cars have been powered by V6 turbo-hybrids since 2014, but this year the sport upped the amount of electrical power on offer to nearly 50% of the peak power output.
That move has been hugely unpopular with fans and drivers -- Max Verstappen has called the new engines "anti-racing," while Fernando Alonso has rechristened Formula 1 "the battery world championship."
On top of the criticisms of the 2026 engines, the V6 turbo era has been unpopular with fans due to the much quieter sounds compared to previous eras of F1.
Ben Sulayem has been a big advocate of a return to V8 engines as soon as possible -- he's even mooted cutting the existing rules cycle short by a year.
On Friday, he posted a video to his Instagram account with the caption: "For the fans. For the drivers. For the sport. I am committed to bringing V8s back to Formula 1."
The video showed various comments on social media praising the FIA and Ben Sulayem after earlier news posts about wanting V8s back.
The video then says: "V8. Watch this space."
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F1 has not had V8 engines since the 2013 season. The V8s had replaced V10s in 2006 -- the FIA had banned V12 engines for the 2000 season.
What a return to V8s exactly would look like is unclear, but manufacturers are aligned in agreement that the sport should move away from its current regulations.
In response to the negative feedback of the current engines F1 and the FIA have agreed tweaks.
The near 50-50 split as it exists now will shift towards something closer to 60-40 in favour of traditional combustion power over the battery elements over the next two seasons, but the battery will still be a significant piece of the kit.
How much of the hated battery technology remains on the new engines remains to be seen.
At the time of committing to the current engines, F1 felt the implementation of the electrical side of things was crucial in bringing the likes of Audi to the table -- the German company became a fully-fledged manufacturer team this season.
General Motors has also committed to building its own engines for Cadillac by the end of the decade.
