Carlos Sainz explains 'pulling strings' reason behind crucial F1 rules delay

Williams driver, and GPDA director, Carlos Sainz believes F1's power unit manufacturers are "pulling strings everywhere" in the ongoing discussion over the future of the engine regulations. 

Throughout the April break, the FIA, F1, the teams, and power unit manufacturers were locked in talks to address the engine regulations and come up with fixes for the Miami GP, which ultimately included the raising of super-clipping up to 350kw and the overall reduction in energy to 7 MJ from 8 MJ.

For 2027, further changes are planned with the change to the 50-50 power output, which is at the heart of the issues with the power units. 

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has called for a delay to major rule changes until potentially 2028 to allow F1 to solve more problems, with drastic rule changes for the 2027 campaign requiring a super majority on the Power Unit Advisory Committee, made up of the FIA, F1, and the five PUMs - Mercedes HPP, Ferrari, Honda, Audi, and Red Bull Powertrains. 

To achieve the supermajority, four of the five PUMs plus the FIA and F1 must vote in favour of any proposed changes.

However, Sainz believes that certain PUMs are against changing the regulations and are "pulling the strings" in the background. 

"It is just getting all the teams aligned politically to agree, which is what is holding everything back," Sainz observed when asked by RacingNews365 if further changes could be made during the 2026 season.

"Clearly, there is a lot of political interest, people have done better homework than others in different areas, and they don't want to lose their performance advantage because of rule changes.

"So you give the teams too much power, and in the end, especially the PU manufacturers are going to fight like hell for their own interests.

"For sure, if the FIA would say: 'This is what it is [going to happen],' I am pretty sure most of the teams could do it; it is just that there are strings attached and they're pulling strings everywhere.

"At least for me on the GPDA side, we're going to push for 2027 [for major changes].

"I have a Mercedes PU, and I could be very opposed to changing too much the advantage of Mercedes and Red Bull with their engine, but for the good of the sport, I would still make plenty of changes for 2027 if I could and was at the top."