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F1 V8 engine return backed as David Coulthard says series can go "zero emissions"
David Coulthard and Will Buxton have backed Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s push to bring V8 engines back to Formula 1 by 2031
Lydia Mee
Published: May 12, 2026, 12:45 AM
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David Coulthard, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard and former F1 TV presenter Will Buxton have shared their verdict on the return of V8s to the championship by 2031.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has promised the return of V8 engines to F1 by 2031, with the possibility of introducing them a year earlier. "It’s coming," Sulayem told the media. "In 2031, the FIA will have the power to do it, without any votes from the PUMs [power unit manufacturers]. That’s the regulations.
"But we want to bring it one year earlier, which everyone [externally] now is asking for. When you try to tell them [the PUMs] they say no, but what will come, will come, and it [the power] will come back to the FIA."
He added: "I’m targeting 2030. One year before the maturity [of the regulations]. It will happen."
Buxton and Coulthard backed the upcoming changes during an episode of the Up To Speed podcast.
"Listen, I've been on the record saying this already. There's not a lot about Mohammed Ben Sulayem's reign of terror that I am particularly a fan of, but this I am very much so, because this returns us to something that the fans want, that the drivers want.
"We've had so many discussions this year about the regulations, but they were always going to be a short-term regulation until this big one took place in 2030/2031. And if it's a return to proper engines, the kind that were your bread and butter, DC, I am all for it. Sign us up."
David Coulthard
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Coulthard added: "Here's where I see this. He clearly is taking a position right now to deal with all of the negativity over the next couple of years.
"But there's this question that Formula 1 could have a naturally aspirated [engine] running on biofuels because we're already there now. It could have zero emissions, and you have something which is 100% recyclable.
"You can take all of those engine parts, crush them down, melt them, and then reuse them again, which isn't the case currently with electrification and when batteries have reached the end of their life.
"So I don't necessarily think that Formula 1 started its journey 76 years ago as a, 'We're going to do something that changes the planet.' I think it started on the basis of designers and engineers trying to create the most powerful, fastest vehicles around a racetrack, and then finding someone brave enough to put a leather helmet on, sit on top of a fuel tank and go out around the race track."
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