Formula 1 heads into the unknown in 2026, tackling one of the biggest regulation changes to its cars in the history of the sport, creating anxiety, excitement and relief.
“One of the big challenges is operating in the dark,” said Nikolas Tombazis, single-seater director of the F.I.A., the sport’s governing body, in November. “You don’t know where the others are.
“You don’t know whether you need to recover one second from one season to the next, or if you’re ahead and going to start the championship winning or in woeful misery. So that angst of the unknown, I think, is psychologically very draining for teams.”
Last January, teams started work on a car that, according to the F.I.A., will be “agile, competitive, safer and more sustainable.” There is a 30-kilogram weight reduction, or about 66 pounds, and the cars will be shorter by 200 millimeters, or about 8 inches, and narrower by 100 millimeters.
The most significant changes are to the power unit, with a 300 percent increase in electrical power, leading to an even split between the internal combustion engine and electric power. The cars will run on 100 percent sustainable fuel derived from carbon from nonfood sources, general waste or carbon captured from the atmosphere.
Aerodynamically, the drag reduction system, or D.R.S., a device to aid overtaking, is gone. It is replaced by two modes, one that opens elements on the front and rear wings to increase down force and speed through the corners, and the other to reduce drag to maximize straight-line speed.
“There are many technical challenges on this program, both on the chassis and on the P.U. [power unit] side,” said Simone Resta, the Mercedes deputy technical director, in November. “Of course, it’s a brand-new P.U., but it’s also sustainable fuels for the first time, and on the chassis side, everything is new.
“So, new aero configuration, new tires, quite challenging weight limits to be achieved and new safety requirements. So there’s a combination of many different things, and there’s no carry-over from this year’s car.”
On Dec. 7, the teams concluded a record-equaling 24 Grands Prix schedule in Abu Dhabi, with Lando Norris winning his first drivers’ title. They have six weeks until the start of preseason testing in Barcelona on Jan. 26.
“We are going into ’26 with the biggest rule change we’ve ever seen, with new cars, new tires, new engines,” said Andy Stevenson, the Aston Martin sporting director. “Lots and lots of things to focus on, but a challenge that we relish.”
The difficulty for the teams this year has been running a parallel program, building the new car for 2026 while still developing this year’s car. Some teams stopped development of the 2025 car very early in the season.
“It has probably been one of the most difficult years in recent times in Formula 1,” Resta said. “With everything new on the car, it has required a massive amount of effort from the chassis group, from the power unit group, from the fuel supplier and partner.”
Frédéric Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, said that aerodynamically, his team fast tracked its 2026 plans when it realized it would not be competing for this year’s world championships.
“McLaren was so dominant in the first four or five events that we realized it would be very difficult for 2025,” Vasseur said in November. “It meant that we decided very early in the season, I think it was the end of April, to switch to ’26. It was a tough call.”
Red Bull has the added difficulty of developing its own power unit with Ford for the first time. Throughout its 21-season history, it has been a customer, primarily of Renault and recently of Honda.
Paul Monaghan, the chief engineer of car engineering for Red Bull, said the complexity of the program had been immense, with plenty of work remaining.
“Some things are already set in stone, so the engines are in manufacture, and we’ve large chunks of the car in manufacture,” he said. “It’s quite a mountain to climb, 2026, but it’s there for all of us. If we’re at the summit first, or if we’re at the summit and others are already there, that’s part of the sport.”
A big question for next year is the competitiveness of the cars and their ability to deliver the close racing the F.I.A. is hoping for.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull said to PA Media in November that if the new rules are not fun, “then I don’t really see myself hanging around” in Formula 1.
Tombazis said the racing would be different, but he was confident it would not be dull.
“Clearly, with new regulations, one expects, initially, a slightly bigger spread of the grid,” he said. “But we do expect, from an aerodynamic point of view, cars to be able to follow each other much closer than now,” with races “more unpredictable” with different tools for overtaking.
“Together with the different aerodynamics, I think we are going to make racing ultimately more exciting.”
Tombazis dismissed the prospect of the cars being as slow as those in Formula 2, as some fans fear. In Qatar, in November, for example, the difference in lap time for pole position between the F1 and F2 cars was 17 seconds.
“Comments about Formula 2 pace are way off the mark,” Tombazis said. “I don’t think we are anywhere near a ‘It’s not Formula 1’ discussion.
“We are talking about lap times, overall, which are in the region of one or two seconds off where we are now, depending on the track, depending on the conditions.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said judgment on the quality of the racing would need to be reserved for a while to allow the season to settle.
“It could be a completely new angle being introduced, in terms of a bit of a chess game, how you play the energy management, where you attack, where you defend,” Wolff said in November. “I think it’s interesting. But let’s wait and see if there’s a spread, if it’s exciting or not. Probably six months down the line, we’ll know.”
Some people in the sport are relieved about the introduction of new regulations. After the regulations changed in 2014, Mercedes won eight consecutive constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ championships, six by Lewis Hamilton, before the rules changed in 2022. It has won just seven Grands Prix since.
George Russell of Mercedes is one driver happy about the changes.
“They are brutal cars, to be honest,” he said about the current cars. “You’re driving around for an hour and a half, and you’re shaking all over the place, your back, your body, your eyes.”
He said that at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is a street circuit, the road was so rough that his car “was hitting the ground so aggressively, and I was doing 240 miles an hour.”
“I spoke with a few drivers, and half the grid was the same,” he continued. “So I’m glad that we’re moving away from this.”
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