About F1

Overtake mode and boost

Since 2026, F1 has two ways for a driver to call up extra electric power. Overtake mode is a reward for being close to the car in front. Boost is the driver's own button for spending energy from the battery, available to everyone at any time.

Overtake mode is the main overtaking aid now that DRS has gone. It works through the power unit rather than the wing.

How overtake mode works

Each circuit has a detection point, usually before the final corner. If a driver crosses it less than one second behind the car in front, overtake mode becomes available to them for the following lap.

When it's active, the car gets two advantages:

  • Extra energy. The driver can harvest an extra 0.5 MJ of electrical energy on that lap, so there's more to spend.
  • Full power for longer. Normally the MGU-K's power tapers off once the car goes beyond 290 km/h. With overtake mode, the chasing car can keep using full electric power up to 337 km/h.

The driver can spend the extra energy in one go to make a pass on a straight, or spread it over the lap to stay close and set up a move later. The car ahead doesn't get overtake mode unless it is itself within a second of someone else.

There are a few limits on when it can be used in a race:

  • It isn't available at the start. It switches on once the leader has crossed the detection point for the first time.
  • After a safety car period, it comes back only once every car has passed the detection point.
  • The race director can switch it off, for example in poor visibility or on a very slippery track.

It's also enabled in practice and qualifying, but it makes the biggest difference in races.

How boost works

Boost is a button on the steering wheel that tells the power unit to deploy maximum power from both the engine and the battery, or to switch to a power profile the team has set up. Any driver can use it anywhere on the lap, to attack or defend.

The catch is that it uses up stored energy. A driver who boosts to hold off an attack on one straight may have nothing left for the next one. Deciding when to press it has become one of the skills of racing in 2026.

Since the Miami Grand Prix, boost in races has been capped at an extra 150 kW above the power the car is already using when the button is pressed. Before that cap, boost could create very large speed differences between cars, which the FIA judged unsafe.

How it's different from DRS

DRS opened the rear wing flap to cut drag, and only the chasing car could use it, only in set zones. Overtake mode gives the chasing car more electric power instead, and the low-drag wing setting (Straight Mode) is now available to everyone.

That makes overtakes look a bit different. Under DRS, the attacking car usually just had more top speed on one straight. In 2026, energy plays a bigger part. A pass can come from the chasing car having saved more energy, or the defending car running out of battery before the end of the straight.

The old "manual override"

Early versions of the 2026 rules called the overtaking aid manual override mode, or MOM. It was renamed overtake mode before the season, and some articles still use the old name.