Get ready, Formula 1 enthusiasts! Next year marks one of the sport’s most significant overhauls in decades.
The upcoming regulations promise a dramatic transformation in how cars appear, sound, and perform. According to the governing body, FIA, these changes are designed to foster greater agility, enhance competition, improve safety, and ensure a more sustainable future for the sport. This impending shift is so profound that some teams have already pivoted their development efforts, effectively sidelining their 2025 car designs to gain a crucial advantage for 2026.
To understand the full impact of these changes on track performance and potential future modifications, The Associated Press recently interviewed Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s director for single-seater racing series, who is spearheading this monumental transition.
While teams are fiercely protecting their development data, early indications suggest a significant performance gap could emerge, with the slowest cars potentially lagging considerably.
Pirelli, the official tire supplier, has reportedly shared with The AP that projected lap times from various teams show a staggering four-second difference – an enormous chasm in the world of F1. Tombazis himself conceded that new engine manufacturers might require additional development time to bridge the ’15 years of accumulated expertise’ held by established powerhouses like Mercedes.
This raises a crucial question: Could some cars be deemed too slow to even compete? Formula 1’s existing regulations technically allow for cars to be excluded if their qualifying times fall outside 107% of the fastest competitor’s time.
However, Tombazis believes the 107% rule is ‘pretty unlikely’ to be enforced. He clarified, ‘Next year, we anticipate a broader range of performance uncertainties, which is undeniably true. We have new entrants and entirely new regulations. When these two factors combine, it could lead to larger performance discrepancies in certain areas.’
The contrast with the 2025 season promises to be stark. Even with McLaren’s current dominance, we’ve seen six different teams reach the podium, and in some qualifying sessions, the entire grid was separated by less than a second.
Given F1’s stringent testing restrictions, these next-generation cars exist solely within team simulations. Tombazis noted that these virtual environments can occasionally produce ‘alarming results.’
He reassured, ‘When a ‘scare story’ emerges – for instance, a driver reports a troubling ‘XYZ’ during a simulated run – in 99% of such cases, we collaborate with the teams to identify and resolve the issue.’
A critical aspect that might still see regulatory adjustments is the extent of driver workload. The 2026 rules place a greater emphasis on electric power, making strategic energy deployment a potentially vital skill. However, the level of automation for this energy management remains an open question.
Tombazis highlighted that ‘extra work’ in car management is already a core skill, often heard in the popular team radio exchanges. However, he cautioned against an ‘other extreme’ where ‘driving becomes like a chess game, solely focused on energy management and deployment.’
The turbo-hybrid engine design, first seen in 2014, will be retained, but with a significantly increased focus on electrical power. Many within the F1 community anticipate that Mercedes, a manufacturer whose engines have propelled teams to nine Constructors’ titles since 2014, will continue to be the benchmark.
To prevent persistent underperformance, struggling manufacturers may receive exemptions allowing them to exceed the cost cap for developing upgrades to engines deemed uncompetitive or unreliable. The FIA plans to review eligibility for this ‘boost’ every six races.
Tombazis staunchly defended the cost cap, stating it ‘is essential for the financial sustainability of the sport, so I would obviously defend that to death.’
However, he acknowledged a potential challenge: ‘But on the other hand, it creates a problem that if you are significantly behind in performance and cannot outspend to recover, you might be condemned to eternal misery by being eternally behind.’
He stressed that this isn’t an ‘instant fix,’ but rather an opportunity for manufacturers to research and develop solutions.
Tombazis firmly stated, ‘We’re not adding any artificial performance or ballast to any car. This is absolutely not something that will ever happen in Formula 1.’
Full wet tires are arguably one of the least utilized components in the F1 paddock. When track conditions necessitate their use, the extreme spray generated by the cars often renders visibility too poor for safe racing.
This issue is largely attributed to the aerodynamic design of current cars’ floors. Encouragingly, the next generation of regulations could potentially lead to more racing in wet conditions.
Tombazis admitted, ‘I would be lying if I said that we had complete confidence about how the cars will perform in the rain in terms of spray and visibility.’ He added that the FIA is committed to preventing a recurrence of situations like the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, where meaningful green-flag racing was impossible.
He empathized with fans, saying, ‘When spectators pay a lot of money to spend the whole weekend sitting in attendance to watch a race and then eventually they have to go home (after very limited racing), that is absolutely terrible.’ He concluded optimistically, ‘There’s a number of projects being evaluated to minimize the chance of that ever happening again, and I believe there are some promising trends.’