F1 teams worry 2026 car rules could mean too little pace and stifled innovation

MONTREAL — The biggest storyline unfolding during this Canadian Grand Prix weekend isn’t the developing driver market or how the weather may impact the ninth Formula One race of the year, especially when Red Bull isn’t considered the favorite.

It’s the planned updates to the technical regulations for 2026 that the FIA revealed on Thursday, releasing general descriptions of the changes and a series of renders of what the cars will look like as F1 pursues lighter, nimbler vehicles and increased battery power.

The draft regulations are set to be ratified by the World Motor Sport Council on June 28. Yet the teams have made it clear that some areas need work, and the coming weeks will be crucial in finalizing F1’s next rule cycle.

“It’s imperative that we are still the leading series in motorsport. That’s how I see us, we’re the pinnacle,” Williams team principal James Vowles said. “We need to make sure that we’re maintaining the performance and speed that we have. Right now, there’s a mismatch there, fundamentally.”

“More work needs to be done,” said Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu. “But we need to do it in a collaborative, transparent way to achieve those objectives.”

Why weight and aerodynamics remain big concerns

The F1 paddock has largely deemed the general direction of the planned changes for 2026 to be positive. Making cars that are 30 kg (66 lbs) lighter, slightly smaller and therefore more agile should improve the on-track spectacle, particularly at narrow street tracks like Monaco, where the flaws of the current generation of cars are exposed on a yearly basis by actionless races.

Yet the reality of achieving better racing has prompted skepticism from teams. Most ran overweight in the first year of the current regulations in 2022, and some, such as Williams and Alpine, still struggle to get down to the 798 kg (1759 lbs) minimum limit two years later. The increase in battery power may help F1 become more sustainable and please the power unit manufacturers (who are eager to develop more sustainable powertrains), yet as one of the heaviest parts of the car, it will also be tough to make the 30 kg drop possible.

“I don’t think anyone will hit that weight target particularly,” said Vowles. “It’s going to be incredibly difficult, and I think that needs reviewing. Because as someone that spends their life going through marginal gains taking weight out of a car, it’s not a fun thing to do.”

Several changes have been made to the aerodynamic profiles of the planned cars for 2026, including a 30 percent reduction in downforce, a 55 percent drop in drag, and the introduction of active aerodynamics. But the first simulations of how the cars will actually function have painted a concerning picture.

F1 team leaders made clear that some areas of the proposed rules need work. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the “main gaps” lay in the aerodynamic regulations. “The cars are not fast enough in the corners and too fast in the straights,” he said. “These two aspects need to be rebalanced.”

Stella also felt the bid for a 50/50 split between engine and battery power from the power units had to be done in a way that placed less of a requirement on the car chassis itself to be efficient enough to make it possible. “From a power unit point of view, likewise from a chassis point of view, it’s time that all parties understand that they need to contribute to the success of the sport,” Stella said.

Remaining the pinnacle of motorsport

Stella’s points led into concerns about the outright pace of the new generation of cars. While there is often a drop in performance when new rules are introduced — as seen from 2021 to 2022 — it is never severe enough to raise serious concerns about the cars being quick enough.

Lewis Hamilton said Thursday that he’d spoken to some drivers who had tried the 2026 cars in the simulation. “They said it’s pretty slow,” Hamilton said. “So we will see whether it’s actually the right direction or not.”

The concern is that the drop in pace could put F1 too close to other categories, such as Formula Two, IndyCar, and Super Formula, which it should comfortably outpace.

“The performance difference to an F2 car could be as small as a few seconds (per lap),” Vowles said. “That’s starting to get a little bit tight, especially when you compare to other series around the world.” In Bahrain, the F1 pole time was 12 seconds quicker than in F2.

It’s not only from a performance standpoint that teams are concerned F1 may not have the same kind of edge over other categories. F1 gravitated to a narrower window for designers under the most recent set of regulations to try and reduce the performance spread through the field. But going into 2026, Komatsu was not sure the engineers and designers working on the car would retain the freedom to keep innovating.

“In freedom of design, especially on the aerodynamic sense, at the moment in the draft regulations, I’m not sure if that balance is hit right in terms of how things are prescribed,” he said. “This philosophy, how we present ourselves as the pinnacle of motorsport, in terms of engineering as well, to have some freedom or probably a bit more increased freedom of aerodynamics, that’s important as well again.

“So again, (they are) areas I expect we need to look into to make it really representative as the pinnacle of motorsport.”

Are the regulations too complicated?

If you took a look at the planned regulations and felt a bit lost, no one would blame you.

Aston Martin’s Mike Krack noted the amount of engineering language used as Friday’s press conference unfolded – phrases like “Z-modes, X-modes, energy management and so on.” Vowles offered some clarity when discussing if the potential rules are too complex: “I think in terms of the X-Modes, just for clarity, that’s effectively reducing drag in a straight mode, and there’s Z-Mode, which is increasing downforce in the corners.”

But the question remains whether the added complexity could impact the growing fanbase. Since the COVID-19 global pandemic, F1 has benefited from a massive popularity boom, in part thanks to the Netflix series “Drive to Survive.” That means F1’s fanbase is that much more diverse in a number of ways, including knowledge.

F1 is already a complex sport with concepts like drag reduction system, tire degradation, and why penalties vary. Somehow, 10 teams, 20 drivers, and thousands of workers put together a grand prix weekend 20-plus times a year, traveling all over the world and racing on permanent and temporary circuits. It is a massive, complicated feat.

And with these drafted regulations, do we risk complicating it even further?

“I think some part of the complexity is also in the language than in the substance, because when we talk about the X-Mode, like, it’s the DRS open, potentially even at the front. But the concept of opening DRS is very well established,” Stella said. “And also I think that some of the complexity that is still lingering on, and I think still, especially on the power unit side, is because of the immaturity of the regulations. I think once they mature, they will become even simpler, or at least I would hope that we can achieve both things through the work of development and collaboration.”

Krack offered caution, touching on how fans and the product itself must be considered in these ongoing conversations.

“I’m a bit scared that in 2026, we will have driver press conferences or driver interviews speaking about all these technicalities, that a lot of people will not understand and lose interest just because of that,” the Aston Martin team principal said. “That is something that we need to be really careful (of), if we have different energy management from track to track, or constraints on the car that makes one car maybe go to the front, one to the back, and then how to explain this.”

What happens next

With such a gap between the proposed rules and what the teams have in mind, it is clear that key stakeholders need to keep discussing the evident concerns before the June 28 vote by the World Motor Sport Council. Despite their comments, the team principals who spoke on Friday were clear they aren’t completely against the ideas presented; they simply want to refine them.

“As for McLaren, we are in agreement, and we support the intent and the objectives at a high level that were stated in the press release,” said Stella. “However, if we look at the regulations in the draft form that has been circulated, they are still far from being able to achieve those agreeable objectives and intent.”

He added a point that was echoed by a few of the other team principals: the need for collaboration. “It is the time for the FIA, F1 and the teams to work together, listen to one another, and contribute to form a solution that will allow the sport to meet those objectives. I think if we meet those objectives, we’re going to have Formula One in a good shape.”

2026 is intended to be the start of a great new technical era for F1 that places greater emphasis on driver skill and allows closer wheel-to-wheel racing. But as far as the teams are concerned, the current proposal is a starting point to achieve that, not the solution.

“If we work together, and we will do going forward on this one, we can get it to a really good position I think,” said Vowles. “It’s a solid foundation to F1. But we do need to clear up some aspects of it.”

(Top photo of Andrea Stella: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)