Toto Wolff calls for subtle changes to the 2026 regulations from the FIA. The governing body is holding a series of meetings to discuss potential regulation changes. The Mercedes team principal hopes that the FIA learns from the past, when, in the Austrian’s eyes, the governing body sometimes overshot with regulation adjustments: ‘We must work with a scalpel, not a baseball bat’.
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The call for adjustments to Formula 1’s 2026 regulations had been heard since the start of the season – when Max Verstappen, during testing in Bahrain, labeled the new cars as ‘Formula E on steroids’ – but grew even louder after Oliver Bearman’s heavy crash in Japan. Partly due to the large speed difference between the Haas driver’s car and Franco Colapinto under the new regulations, Bearman crashed into the barriers at Suzuka with 50G. The FIA promised to hold a series of meetings after the Japanese race to discuss regulation changes.
‘With a scalpel, not a baseball bat’
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff does call on the governing body to make only targeted adjustments. “It’s about how we can improve Formula 1,” the team principal explains to a select group of media. “How we can make it pure racing and what we can improve in terms of safety. But we must work with a scalpel and not a baseball bat. We must learn from the past, where decisions were sometimes made in an erratic manner. Back then, we went too far and only later realized it wasn’t good.”
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ADUO
However, it is not the only call Wolff makes to the FIA. Also in the area of the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunies (ADUO) rule, the Mercedes team principal hopes that the governing body will work with ‘utmost precision’. The rule provides teams, during three periods of a season, that are estimated to be at least two percent behind the best-performing engine manufacturer with an opportunity to further develop their engines. Mercedes is currently the best-performing engine supplier on the grid.
“The principle behind the ADUO is that it gives teams with a significant deficit the chance to catch up. Not to then overtake us,” said the Austrian. “Whatever decisions are made, whichever team is assigned the ADUO, it must be done with the utmost precision and transparency. Just getting something handed to you, that has no place in Formula 1. At the moment, I only see one engine supplier that is really struggling,” Wolff seems to be pointing to the problems of Honda and Aston Martin. “The rest all have things well under control.”
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