Dan Ticktum calls for F1 to move away from electrification as 2026 cars divide drivers

The Formula E race winner says F1’s 2026 “middle ground” risks pleasing nobody

Dan Ticktum has questioned the direction of Formula 1 after the championship's 2026 regulations have received differing opinions from drivers during testing in Bahrain.

The Formula E race winner has reacted to the debate around what the next generation of F1 cars should feel like to drive and watch as the series enters a set of new regulations that rely substantially more on electrical energy and power management. Max Verstappen has already been vocal about his feelings towards the new cars, and in conversation with Motorsport Week, Ticktum has been equally damning.

“If I’m being brutally honest, I think F1 – it should be a sport," he said. "So what do people want to see from a sport? What do petrolheads want to see? They want to see a massive, great V12 screaming, and maybe not so much downforce, but massive cars that are a bit more difficult to drive.

"I don’t know what people want to see, but I’d say largely that. So when you’re in this middle ground, I don’t feel like you please anyone, really."

Verstappen has described the process of driving these new cars as an exercise in energy harvesting and deployment rather than racing, describing it as "Formula E on steroids".

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

"To drive [they are] not a lot of fun, to be honest," he claimed on the second day of testing.

While 2026 sees smaller cars boasting less weight, many have questioned its possible over-reliance on electric power. Ticktum believes that side of the automotive industry should be kept to the championship he drives in, leaving F1 to enjoy and develop the technology of the internal combustion engine.

“Obviously, there is a transition period, and we knew it was going to take a couple of/several decades," Ticktum continued. "Who knows where F1 will end up?

"But I think with FE, the more that grows and the more that becomes prominent, personally, as a lover of the sport, I’d like to see F1 go back the other way.

"I'd like it to be, ‘here’s the sport, which is just about pleasure and enjoyment and engines and fuel and all the rest of it’. I don’t know if that’s going to die out. Who knows?"