MONTREAL — As Formula One gets into gear for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, the sport is already looking to the future, as the FIA revealed the details of its 2026 regulations overhaul Thursday morning.
The new rules call for slightly smaller, lighter and nimbler cars, swap out DRS for an energy boost to aid in overtaking, ramp up battery power and add active aerodynamics. Many details need figuring out before anyone can form a proper opinion of how the changes will play out on track, but the drivers have plenty of thoughts already — both positive and negative.
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Lighter is better
Along with being a bit shorter and narrower than today’s cars, the 2026 versions will be 30kg (66 lbs) lighter, with the minimum weight dropping to 768kg (1693 lbs). “Those little things are in the right direction because I love the 2016 car, which was certainly narrower and lighter,” Daniel Ricciardo said. “This isn’t going to be as extreme as that, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.”
That was a common refrain in the paddock. Everyone seems happy with the weight loss — which should improve handling — but a 3.8 percent drop is hardly momentous. Lewis Hamilton noted the cars would still be heavy. “Thirty kilos is good,” Nico Hülkenberg said, “but it’s not the world.”
A lot depends on how the teams drop that heft. “I don’t think that weight comes for free,” Alex Albon said, while Fernando Alonso cast doubt on the whole idea. “I think it is impossible probably to achieve 30 kilos already,” he said, theorizing that the nearly three-fold boost in battery power will add enough weight that the cars will effectively have to drop 60 kilos, “which is it seems at the moment probably, to the team, is an impossible target.”
On the other hand, he noted, this sport is full of smart folks. “As always in Formula One, this impossible in 2024 will become reality in 2026.”
DRS is dead, long live Manual Override
Come 2026, drivers looking to overtake will swap the ability to open their rear wing to reduce drag for a ‘Manual Override’ mode, which will offer a sort of energy boost. Alonso likes the idea if it means drivers get more freedom than the DRS system allows in terms of where and when they can deploy it, saying it could produce different strategies and thus more interesting racing. Valtteri Bottas agreed: “If it’s more total power and a bit more freedom on the energy usage in terms of the race tactics, I think that’s positive.”
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Ricciardo suggested that this kind of system can improve over time. “If it’s maybe not ideal or perfect at the start, there’s enough brains that will solve it, and enough people will catch on, and it’ll find its way to a good home,” he said.
Yuki Tsunoda raised a different concern: “I assume it’ll be much (more) difficult or much busier to manage electric (boost) or all that sort of stuff,” he said, compared to DRS’s current, easy activation. “A lot more things to learn about.”
The fear of dominance
Most drivers noted that regulation overhauls tend to trigger dominant runs by whichever teams (or team) nail the design from the jump, as with Mercedes in 2014 and Red Bull in 2022. The pace among the grid is closer than in years, with Ferrari and McLaren finally challenging Red Bull. Naturally, drivers are wary of a reset.
“The pace between the cars is extremely tight,” Alex Albon said. “It’s really the tightest it has been in a long, long time. This will definitely spread everyone out again.”
“What we want is just close competition,” Alonso said. “Multiple race winners, opportunities for everyone. We don’t want to have domination of three, four years, where only one team, one driver or two drivers, can win. So, hopefully, the 2026 rules can help on that, which is the only thing that Formula One is missing. The rest is great.”
Bottas, whose Sauber team sits in last place with zero points on the year, offered some optimism. “A new era of regulations is always exciting, brings opportunities to different teams. It’s nice to see a change.”
Innovation v. racing
Most drivers were ambivalent about the likelihood that the 2026 rules would produce a group of highly advanced but largely homogeneous racecars.
“I think (the regulations) should be more simple,” Alonso said. He suggested giving the teams more freedom in designing their cars, noting the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 of the late 1970s and the era when teams could choose between Michelin and Bridgestone tires. “I like that kind of freedom that you can choose something,” instead of having so much dictated by the regulations, he said.
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Albon also talked up a step back from complexity. “I’d rather just have a bit more simple engines, a little bit more standardized parts within the engines, or whatever it may be,” he said. “And just return to a more basic regulation.”
Oscar Piastri pointed to the sport’s longtime, “important” role as a force for innovation, seeing the rules as a way of pushing automotive engineering forward, even if it can work against the quality of the racing product.
Hamilton also saw the upside, calling the increased battery power and use of sustainable fuels “a really bold step” on the environmental front. “We just have to make sure the cars are efficient, fast and a natural step forward, and that the actual racing is improved.”
Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images
Top photo of Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso: Clive Rose/Getty Images, Kym Illman/Getty Images