The FIA's single-seater director, Nikolas Tombazis, has reacted to claims that the 2026 power units will see F1 cars lapping at F2 speeds.

The fears are based on the new engines which will be split 50/50 between ICE and electric power, drivers fearing that the need to recharge the engine every lap will cause speeds to drop.

"I think comments about Formula 2 pace are way off the mark," Tombazis told reporters in Las Vegas. "We are talking about lap times overall which are in the region of one or two seconds off where we are now, depending on the track, depending on the conditions, and obviously at the start of a cycle it would be silly to be faster than the previous cycle.

"It would cost us nothing from a regulation," he continued, "but it would be very easy to make the cars go faster, but one has to gradually claw back what is gained by natural development.

"So you can't start the cycle going faster than the previous one, then in 20 years from now you can imagine what would happen. So I think it's natural the cars are a bit slower, but I don't think we are anywhere near the sort of it's not Formula 1 discussion in any way or shape."

However, Red Bull's chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, believes, or rather hopes, the issue will be track specific.

"For me it's a little bit track dependent," he said. "We have what we might term energy-rich circuits and energy-poor circuits, where it's easier to fill the energy store with energy, and then the lap time is a little bit slower.

"Some of the poor ones where we're struggling a little bit at the moment, we're a bit more than that off," he continued, "but one of the great difficulties at the moment is trying to actually establish how much grip we're going to have.

"We have an aero map and it says we'll make this level of downforce and is it actually reality? Once we have the final tyres from Pirelli, maybe they're a little bit worse and it has quite a knock-on effect to your overall lap time. So yes, they'll be a little bit slower. But I don't think we'll be at F2 pace, I hope not. So that's where we would be."

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