How F1 became hostage to its manufacturers - The Undercut with Damon Hill and Mark Hughes
5/21/202651 min
On the latest episode of The Undercut, Damon Hill and Mark Hughes explore the complex relationship that F1 has with automotive manufacturers - a relationship that many would argue is to blame for the knot that the sport has put itself in with the 2026 regulations. With another big manufacturer - Chinese car giant BYD - exploring joining the grid, is it time for F1 to de-couple itself from the 'myth' that road relevancy was every really an important aspect of the sport? That's the question at the heart of this wide-ranging conversation...
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First 90 secondsMark Hughes· Host0:00
[upbeat music] The Athletic. [upbeat music] You're listening to The Undercut with Damon Hill and Mark Hughes. [upbeat music] Well, Damon, as we're, um, coming up the Canadian Grand Prix, in that gap between Miami and Canada, we've heard a few interesting comments from the governing body, the FIA. Um, senior people, uh, one, the president saying, "Yeah, we're gonna go back to V8s by 2030 or '31." But senior technical people saying, "Yeah, we probably listened too much to the automotive requests, and that's what's led us to have this, trying to get to this 50/50 split, which has caused us some problems, and we really need to change that split a bit more in favor of the internal combustion engine, um, particularly f- from 2027 on." And it's an interesting point because certainly some of us have been saying for quite a long time, Formula 1 is so successful in its own right commercially, why is it giving itself such difficulties just to accommodate the wishes of a, an outside entity such as a, uh, automotive? And can't