F1 team 'facing ban' ahead of Australian Grand Prix as new dispute develops
The dispute - over a new FIA power unit regulation - could shake up the field for the Australian GP if a ban is introduced.
Ryan Smart
An F1 team could face an FIA ban on a key part of their 2026 car design, it has been reported, ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
The 2026 season-opener, which takes place at Albert Park on March 8, will be the first race that significantly-changed regulations will be in effect.
The majority of the regulation changes relate to aerodynamics and power units, with new in-car controls intended to provide increased overtaking opportunities.
The MGU-H power unit component, meanwhile, is gone, with the MGU-K instead producing a significantly increased amount of energy power.
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Whenever a new set of regulations is introduced to Formula 1, teams inevitably analyse the rulebook in an attempt to spot potential loopholes in the rules.
But this time around, the FIA have stated that they will 'not tolerate anyone exploiting loopholes in the regulations that they have kept secret from us'.
That directive has meant that every team's designs have been placed under the microscope far more than might normally be the case this winter.
Mercedes have set the pace during winter testing thus far, with drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli the only ones to set a lap time of under 1 minute and 34 seconds in Bahrain last week.
The Silver Arrows produce their own power unit in-house, and there appears to be cautious optimism that it will propel them to the very top of the grid.
Since early signs of their expected performance levels for 2026 have emerged, there has been a dispute among teams over the compression ratio on the power unit that Mercedes use.
The ratio measures how much the air-fuel mixture inside a cylinder can be compressed, and is set at 16:1 for the 2026 season onwards.
Teams are arguing that Mercedes have worked out a 'trick' which allows them to perform better in various different conditions.
And according to Swiss outlet Blick, Ferrari are said to be claiming that 'the FIA will ban the increased compression ratio for the Australian Grand Prix'.
That would force Mercedes to re-engineer parts of their power units in order to comply with the regulations if the ban is brought in.
Mercedes also distribute power units to Williams, McLaren and Alpine, though it is unclear as to whether a ban would have any effect on them.
Team principal Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 on Wednesday that the Silver Arrows had been in dialogue with the FIA during their design process, stating: "We have had all the assurances that what we did was according to the rules."
Adrian Newey, who is now team principal of Aston Martin, said that 'one manufacturer' was not aligned with the others surrounding the power unit rule interpretations - though he did not explicitly name Mercedes.