Jacques Villeneuve doesn't see a repeat of Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes type dominance with the 2026 F1 regulations

Jacques Villeneuve feels that we're not looking at a repeat of what happened in 2014 when the start of the turbo hybrid regulations kick-started the Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes dominance. The 2014 F1 season was the last time we had a major regulation change involving power units. At that point, we had moved on from naturally aspirated V8 engines to the V6 turbo hybrid, which had both MGU-H and MGU-K as well.

The move triggered Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes having a massive power unit advantage over the rest of the field. In 2026, we are moving on from the V6 Turbo hybrids that had an 80-20 bifurcation between the internal combustion engine and the hybrid to one where it is going to be 50-50. At the same time, sustainable fuel is going to be used.

During all of this, there have been suggestions that we could see a repeat of what happened in 2014, where one power unit was just too far ahead of everyone else.

Jacques Villeneuve doesn't think so. Speaking to Vision4sport, the former F1 champion felt that what happened in 2014 was a bit of a freak case where teams were caught on the back foot. He didn't expect a repeat of it, as he said,

"In 2014, Mercedes had a five-year advantage over its rivals and had more powerful engines ready in the garage at the time when their rivals began to match the performance of their power units. And since that's how it went in 2014, everyone now thinks it will end the same way in 2026, but I don't think the other manufacturers will be surprised this time."

He added,

"The technology is the same, it's just implemented differently. The rumors about Mercedes' superiority in terms of engines are just rumors; no one knows what's really going on in the various design departments. In any case, this power unit regulation doesn't seem destined to last long, and in any case, we can only hope that there isn't a single engine."

What the Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes combination did in the turbo hybrid era

With the 2014 F1 regulations, the Mercedes power unit had a massive advantage over the rest of the field. To make things worse, the regulations also meant that there was a limit on how much worse one could do on the power unit during a season. As a result, we had the German team go on a complete rampage and win titles from 2014 to 2021.

The 8-year title run is still the longest and the most dominant run in F1 history. Lewis Hamilton also became the face of the sport during this time, as he would pick up 6 world titles during this period. There is a school of thought already that the 2026 F1 season could potentially have something on similar lines, but as is often said, the proof is in the pudding, and we'd have to wait and see where the chips fall.

Lewis Hamilton saw his career graph change completely, and it would be interesting to see if we have a new star emerge this time around.