Formula 1’s new hybrids put more electrical power than ever in the driver’s hands, and where they choose to spend it has made overtaking far less predictable.

For more than a decade you knew exactly where a Formula 1 car would try to pass: the DRS zone. In 2026 that certainty is gone, and a single button is a big part of the reason why.

The change that drives everything sits under the bodywork. This year’s power units (the combined petrol-and-electric engines) lean on electrical energy far more heavily than before, with roughly a 50/50 split between the internal combustion engine and the battery. With that much electrical performance on tap, the question of when and where a driver releases it has become a skill in its own right. The tool for releasing it is the Boost Button.

Pressing it lets a driver take manual control of energy deployment, calling on stored electrical power from the battery for an extra hit of performance. The power unit switches to a more aggressive setting, either the full amount available or a profile the team has pre-loaded for that circuit, and the driver can spend it attacking the car ahead, defending from one behind, or simply finding lap time on a chosen straight.

The catch is that the energy is finite and has to be earned back, a process called Recharge. Cars harvest charge under braking, when a driver lifts off early, or while running at part throttle, plus a trick known as super clipping (topping up the battery at the end of a straight while still flat out). The 2026 systems recover roughly twice as much energy per lap as the old ones, which is exactly why drivers can lean on Boost more often, as long as they manage the battery carefully.

It is not unlimited firepower, by design. To stop cars simply blasting past on raw electrical muscle, the FIA caps the Boost in race conditions at an extra 150 kW above the car’s current level, and allows the full 350 kW of electrical deployment only in key acceleration zones from corner exit to braking, tapering to 250 kW elsewhere. The goal is closer racing without absurd closing speeds.

The Boost Button should not be confused with Overtake Mode, the system that actually replaced DRS as the passing aid. Overtake Mode hands a chasing car bonus energy, an extra 0.5 MJ (megajoules), for the following lap if it gets within one second of the car ahead at a detection point. The clever part is the taper: the leading car’s electrical deployment fades above about 290 km/h and is gone by roughly 355 km/h, while the chaser keeps deploying, opening a slingshot window on the straights. Active aero, the movable wings that flatten out to cut drag, does the aerodynamic job the old rear-wing flap used to, only now everyone can use it in the zones.

The practical upshot is that overtaking is no longer scripted. In the DRS years, moves came almost exclusively in marked zones into heavy braking. Now, because each driver decides where to unload their energy, passes appear in unexpected corners, and a defender who reaches a straight with a flat battery is exposed no matter how quick the car is. Energy management has become a real weapon, in attack and defence alike.

None of this flashes up on a timing screen the way an open DRS flap did, which is why a 2026 race takes a little more reading. But it is also why the racing feels fresher. The quickest car no longer wins the straights by default. The driver who saves, spends and times their electrical energy best does, and the Boost Button is where that fight is decided.

Thumbnail: By courtesy of Pirelli