The second in our series focusing on synthetic fuels highlights the 2026 Formula One season’s new regulations
‘If Formula One can show using sustainable fuels is possible for racing, we can show the world it’s possible for everyday life and give people confidence’ – BTW Alpine F1 Executive Technical Director David Sanchez
Cutting edge engineering and design has always defined Formula One but this year the sport’s new era of technical regulations leads the way using sustainable fuel in smaller, lighter cars.
Every one of the 11 teams has had to build their car from scratch for 2026 so it will be an exciting start to the season for established teams such as Ferrari and McLaren through to new team Cadillac.
One team looking to take advantage of the new rules are BTW Alpine – after finishing bottom in the 2025 Constructors’ Championship.
At the launch of BWT Alpine’s new A526 car, hosted on cruise ship MSC World Europa, in Barcelona on Friday (January 25), Team Principle Flavio Briatore made clear his expectations for the new season.
He said: “This year is not an excuse anymore, we have an amazing car for growth and I believe we have the best power unit in the business.
“It has been a relentless few months at the Enstone factory in preparation for the season, designing and creating the A526, together with Mercedes-AMG who will supply the new power unit and gearbox; a partnership we are very excited about.”
The team’s Mercedes-AMG power units will use advanced 100 percent sustainable fuel and this transformative shift marks the sport’s journey to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
David Sanchez, Executive Technical Director of BWT Alpine, says ‘the objective is the maximum performance possible’.
He said: “The team’s car power unit is developed with its own fuel but from the drivers’ perspective, they’re not going to have to worry about the fuel. Of course, as teams, we do because we need to put in the right amount of fuel before going racing, the right amount before qualifying.
“There are a lot of incentives towards sustainable energy and biofuels and if we can show in Formula One that it’s possible for racing, we can show the world for sure it’s possible for everyday life and give people confidence.”
‘Innovations and inventions end up into road cars’
With the aim to use less fuel than previous F1 cars, the 2026 version aims to deliver the same, if not better performance with the fuel designed to deliver a minimum of 65 percent greenhouse gas savings.
Commentators have also been watching the progress closely and F1 correspondent Dan Moxon says ‘it feels inevitable that the use of sustainable fuel in Formula 1 will eventually lead to the technology becoming more prevalent in road cars’.
He added “F1 teams have had the money and the competitive desire to innovate and the inventions that have come from their R&D efforts always end up making it into road cars if there is a use for them.
“Sustainable fuels aren’t nearly accessible enough to everyday road-users. Assuming F1 showcases them successfully with no detriment to performance, as has been the case in F2 and F3, the global reach of the sport will surely give sustainable fuels a higher profile which could lead to more investment in projects, speeding up the scaling of the industry.”
Drivers in the spotlight
Over and above the performance of the car and fuel Sanchez says ‘we also need the performance of the driver’. He said: “The final beat is done by the driver.”
On stage, in Barcelona, BWT Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly, 29, and Franco Colapinto, 22, who is preparing for his first full-time championship, heard Flavio Briatore make it clear he wants them to go into battle.
Briatore said: “Pierre and Franco are friends, working very hard together. For the moment they are friends. After two or three races, maybe the friendship is a little bit broken, maybe bigger than that. So we expect two good drivers.”
‘We took some pain last year’
Sanchez conceded that Alpine ‘took some pain last year’ while focusing ahead on the 2026 car. He said: “Everyone kept their head down and seeing the car complete, coming out of the box on Wednesday (January 20) at Silverstone, was a great moment.
“But, that great moment is short-lived, we need to keep everyone’s feet on the ground; we have a car, but we need a fast car and we need to keep developing the car.
“Whoever has a fast car almost always wins. If they sit back and think, oh, we have a fast car, and not do anything, they will very quickly drop back.
“The A526 is a completely new car from front to back, chassis to power unit. The size and weight have significantly reduced, the dimensions by 200mm in length, the width by 100mm and the kilos shaved off by 30kg.
“The focus has to be the best we can for the launch car – but we keep working hard from the beginning of the testing until Round One in Melbourne.
“The car is going to grow, you have to have a strategy of how you’re going to upgrade the car. If you spend all your budget in the first five races it’s not going to be good.
“And depending on what we see during testing in Barcelona this week (January 24-26), we either stick to our strategy or we’ll shift to be flexible.
“The big challenge was to make sure we design a car which is harmonious. You need aerodynamics to work well with the mechanical side of the car and you need all the chassis to integrate well with the power units.”
Advanced simulators to understand car sensitivities
Formula One teams invest heavily in advanced simulators. These Driver-in-the-Loop (DiL) rigs are used for vehicle development, set-up optimisation and track familiarisation. They have a chassis, cockpits and steering wheels on motion platforms to replicate the car’s behaviour, allowing drivers virtual testing of new parts and strategies.
Sanchez explained: “From the simulation point of view early on it’s very much about understanding what you’re working with; the main sensitivities.
“But some of the basic aspects like aerodynamics, new characteristics, energy management, how can we blend these aspects together, you don’t need to know exactly what the car will be like in the end of the process, but you need to evaluate how the elements influence each other.
“You just keep building your understanding so the car is maturing, then you can make your suspension choices, your architectural choices.
“The drivers have been very much involved in the simulator in the process because one of our objectives is to give them the most driveable car.”
Sanchez says the car will be different to drive. Last year the cars had so much downforce, getting the car to the limit, it was very much like driving on the knife edge. The new cars with less downforce may be a bit more predictable. If the cars are sliding a little more, that will be a challenge for the driver.
“But if it’s predictable and if the car is very drivable, I think it will be quite fun.
“For the car to go fast, it needs grunt, it needs downforce and it needs power. But the driver has to use it. If you give a lot of downforce to the driver, he doesn’t have the confidence to go and push towards the peak of performance.
“Ultimately, the car is shorter and narrower than recent years with some aerodynamic freedom to explore. We have the return of active aero where we have the ability to have movable front and rear wings, something the majority of the drivers on the grid will not have experienced. The reduction in downforce and drag is expected to bring better racing, which I am sure all fans will be intrigued to watch.”
Pierre Gasly, now in this fourth season with Alpine,drove the A526 car for couple of laps on the shakedown at Silverstone on Wednesday, January 21 and said ‘it’s something quite spectacular’.
He said: “We’re giving ourselves the best chance to do well this year. “The sacrifices we made last year made a painful and long season for us. Now it’s important to deliver because we know that we as a team are helping to be in a much better shape than last year.
“This is the first time in my career where the entire car has had such significant changes but I‘m confident in the work the team has done. Every team is trying to figure out how the shakedowns are going. In a few weeks’ time, we’re going to go flat out in Australia and no one will hide anything anymore.
“The engine feels different. It’s probably going to need a different approach. We’re going to have more time spent in the corners, probably faster arriving speed in some tracks. So whether it’s going to suit my driving style a bit more, I don’t know, but I’ll have to adapt to whatever makes us fastest (alpinef1.com).
So why an F1 car launch on a cruise ship?
MSC WORLD EUROPA is the world’s largest LNG-powered cruise ship and set new standards for environmental sustainability at sea when it launched in 2022. The cruise line is committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for its marine operations by 2050.
MSC Cruises joined forces with BWT Alpine Formula One Team as a Premium Partner in 2025, both looking to ‘celebrate performance, sustainability and the spirit of innovation’.
In fact, while the 6,762-passenger ship was moored in MSC Cruises’ dedicated terminal at the Port of Barcelona for the car launch it connected into shoreside power to achieve net zero emissions on the launch day.
For BWT Alpine’s Flavio Briatore it was not the first time he had been on the ship. He said: “I was on MSC World Europa at its launch in 2022. It’s an amazing ship, it is a city. I brought MSC Cruises to Formula One and now it is a pleasure to launch our new car on this ship.” (msccruises.co.uk).
Formula One in 2026
After pre-season testing at Circuit de Barcelona on January 26 and two three-day sessions in Bahrain, the new F1 cars will be on the track during 24 Grand Prix weekends, including six F1 Sprint races, starting in Melbourne on March 8.
The British Grand Prix takes place at the Silverstone Circuit on July 5 (formula1.com).