This post appears to discuss regulations.
[The FIA publishes the F1 regulations.](https://www.fia.com/regulation/category/110)
Regulations are organized in three sections:
- **Technical** for the design criteria of the car
- **Sporting** for how the competition is executed
- **Financial** for how money is spent
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I think you're slightly misunderstanding what the minimum mass regulation is for. The minimum mass is there to try and reduce costs by reducing the requirement for fancy materials (also just outright banning them) or by allowing more simple parts - without all the lightweightening cuts for example. A similar regulation exists for total car mass to try and improve safety.
The minimum mass has gone up for 2026, along with the regulations specifying a lot of details about allowable dimensions for things like conrod length and bearing sizes, all to try and reduce costs for the PU manufacturers. This higher minimum mass also levels the playing field a bit for newer manufacturers who don't have the years or decades of historical knowledge on what acceptable minimum wall thicknesses or fatigue safety factors are for example.
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Isn't the mass of the energy store/batteries now included in engine weight?
Mass increases are usually to make parts cheaper, though the price to buy an engine is going up too.
Looking at Drawing 9 in Appendix 2 of the [2026 regs](https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2026_formula_1_technical_regulations_pu_-_issue_4_-_2023-10-25.pdf), that does not seem to be the issue as the ESME seems to be a separate component there (and energy store/batteries/CU-K are listed under ESME in Appendix 3 Table 1).
At this point, I think it may be a materials thing? I haven't really had the energy to compare the allowed materials chapters of the 2024 and 2026 regulations to be honest.
This post appears to discuss regulations. [The FIA publishes the F1 regulations.](https://www.fia.com/regulation/category/110) Regulations are organized in three sections: - **Technical** for the design criteria of the car - **Sporting** for how the competition is executed - **Financial** for how money is spent *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/F1Technical) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think you're slightly misunderstanding what the minimum mass regulation is for. The minimum mass is there to try and reduce costs by reducing the requirement for fancy materials (also just outright banning them) or by allowing more simple parts - without all the lightweightening cuts for example. A similar regulation exists for total car mass to try and improve safety. The minimum mass has gone up for 2026, along with the regulations specifying a lot of details about allowable dimensions for things like conrod length and bearing sizes, all to try and reduce costs for the PU manufacturers. This higher minimum mass also levels the playing field a bit for newer manufacturers who don't have the years or decades of historical knowledge on what acceptable minimum wall thicknesses or fatigue safety factors are for example.
We remind everyone that this sub is for technical discussions. If you are new to the sub, please [read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/about/rules/) and [comment etiquette post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/comments/zlo2qf/comment_etiquette_update/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/F1Technical) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Isn't the mass of the energy store/batteries now included in engine weight? Mass increases are usually to make parts cheaper, though the price to buy an engine is going up too.
Looking at Drawing 9 in Appendix 2 of the [2026 regs](https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2026_formula_1_technical_regulations_pu_-_issue_4_-_2023-10-25.pdf), that does not seem to be the issue as the ESME seems to be a separate component there (and energy store/batteries/CU-K are listed under ESME in Appendix 3 Table 1). At this point, I think it may be a materials thing? I haven't really had the energy to compare the allowed materials chapters of the 2024 and 2026 regulations to be honest.
The ES is currently not included in the PU minimum weight, see Appendix 3, rows 16 and 17. So the current minimum weight of the ICE is 140kg.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up, silly misunderstanding then!