Power Unit Components (ICE & MGU-K)

A Formula 1 power unit combines an internal combustion engine (ICE), a turbocharged V6, with an electric motor-generator called the MGU-K, connected to the crankshaft. The MGU-K both recovers energy under braking and adds electric power back under acceleration.

Previous-generation power units (2014-2025) also carried a second motor-generator, the MGU-H, which recovered energy from exhaust heat via the turbocharger. The 2026 regulations remove the MGU-H entirely, simplifying the unit to just the ICE and MGU-K, while substantially increasing the MGU-K's power contribution to compensate.

This is a genuinely different power unit architecture from the previous era, not just a tweak, which is part of why the 2026 season is treated as a real reset rather than an incremental update.