If you were given the power to stitch together the greatest corners of global motorsport to create the ultimate Formula 1 track, what would you choose?
During a recent stage appearance alongside his fellow drivers, Aston Martin veteran Fernando Alonso was asked to build his “dream circuit” by picking three individual sectors from the current F1 calendar. While the two-time world champion built an absolute masterpiece of a racetrack, Cadillac’s Sergio Perez quickly pointed out a harsh modern reality: the 2026 regulations would make Alonso’s dream track a nightmare to drive.
Alonso’s frankenstein “super circuit”
When pressed to build his ultimate track, Alonso didn’t hesitate, immediately selecting some of the most iconic, high-speed, and aerodynamically demanding stretches of asphalt in the world.
“I think will be, yeah, again Suzuka sector one,” Alonso declared, selecting the legendary, high-speed ‘S’ Curves of the Japanese Grand Prix.
For his second sector, the Spaniard went to the Ardennes forest. “Then yeah, Spa sector two,” he added, choosing the long, flowing, and incredibly fast middle section of the Belgian Grand Prix.
To finish the lap, he brought it home to Spain. “And Barcelona sector three,” Alonso concluded.
The brutal 2026 “clipping” reality
While the crowd and the interviewer loved the combination, Sergio Perez immediately recognized the massive problem with stitching Suzuka and Spa together under the new 2026 engine regulations.
Because the 2026 power units rely on a 50/50 power split between the internal combustion engine (ICE) and the battery, energy management has become the grid’s biggest headache. If a track demands too much full-throttle deployment without enough heavy braking zones to recharge the system, the battery simply runs out of energy on the straights—a sudden, jarring loss of top speed known in the paddock as “clipping.”
A circuit combining the relentless high-speed flow of Suzuka and the massive full-throttle stretches of Spa would drain a 2026 battery almost instantly.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“There will be a lot of clipping on that circuit,” Perez immediately joked, roasting the sheer technical impossibility of Alonso’s dream track.
Never one to back down, Alonso quickly fired back with a cheeky vote of confidence for his own team’s 2026 Honda engine programme.
“Not for us,” Alonso grinned, prompting a laugh from the crowd.
While a Suzuka-Spa-Barcelona hybrid track will only ever exist in racing simulators, the new Cadillac driver’s quick interjection is a perfect reminder of how drastically the 2026 regulations have changed the way Formula 1 drivers have to think about the circuits they race on.
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