F1 Regulations 2026 - EXPLAINED 

"it's hard for new manufacturers to join" like they want new manufacturers to join🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

burning more fuel around a lap purely to charge the battery instead of burning said fuel for more ICE power is an absolutely heinous crime

honestly, i think these regulations are a result of a lack of direction for f1. They want the fastest, most sustainable, safest and cheapest cars while having the best, fairest racing under a cost cap and want all that to happen from a set of regulations that will 100% for sure bring f1 fans what they want f1 doesnt know what it wants. how can you design a set of regulations like that?

So they decided on suboptimal new engine rules and then tried to fix it with the aero rules... great

To solve the high CO2 emissions from the logistics, they introduce sustainable fuel for the cars. To solve the overtaking relying too much on DRS, they make them slower but with an electric boost. To solve the cars being slower, they introduce more aero. Scared of Audi about electric boost, they limit energy recovery. To solve the reduced energy recovery, they burn more fuel. That's a complete mess! I just wanted fast exciting cars around a track!

The only motorsport technical youtuber worth watching

I rather they postpone things to 2027 or 2028. - We can't have more sustainability by having less thermally efficient engines. - We shouldn't be combusting more fuel under the guise of "bio-fuel." - DRS was heavily criticised when it came about, but at least drivers & teams have to work around the sudden aero & balance changes it brings. There's nothing skill-full about just magically having extra electric boost by simply closing a gap. Might as well just call it "FanBoost", but hey FE fans will argue the drivers had to work their pretty smiles off the track to earn even that. At this point we might even hire Tilke to redraw all tracks with "Attack Mode" strips - Active Aero YES, Finally! The rest of the aero rules I'm less annoyed about since I'm old enough to have seen F1 long enough to know that aerodynamicists always finds a couple ways no matter how impossible it seems.

Would be cool if they made the front motor act only as a generator and made that assembly as a "spec part", so nobody could complain about Audi having an advantage

If they use "e-fuels" they shouldn't need electric motor and batteries, just go back to NA V8/V10s...

My grandpa used to say You can scratch your right ear with your right hand Or you can use your left hand go around the head to get the same job done . That's how this entire regulation feels like

My perspective? F1 and the FIA are getting complacent. They know that they're getting more and more popular, and they're riding that wave. So they're okay with chickening out of innovation and compromising speed. But other categories will be catching up, so I am expecting that the next batch of regulations after 2026 will just jump the F1s a huge leap forward to leave some air with IndyCar, LMdH and LMH and the other F-series.

I see a B Sport post. I click like. Then I watch.

Not subbing to f1 app anymore. ill save my, money

If we using biofuels what's the point of the battery in the first place

More buses and trucks use an MGU-H than road cars, that’s the image that F1 is moving away from despite having pioneered the technology. This was also one aspect that made quieter engines inevitable (the other is turbo that is common on road cars) which wasn’t so good for marketing the sport, despite their adverts still using V10 or V8 noises.

Just like you said many times in this video….it’s a compromise!

The fact that they rejected front regen is such a shame, like ffs we could've made cars lighter with it...

Reduce the risk of punctures from close racing touches ! Punctures kill racing and drivers are scared of the razor edged floors so they stay away. Racing would be improved if the FIA mandated floor edges that are kinder to tires. The new front wing looks like another source of punctures

Reducing downforce is objectively the right decision to improve racing ability of the cars to follow and pass each other. 2026 regs would be great if they would just get rid of the hybrid system altogether.

These rules seem like the maybe the biggest slowdown of cars ever. I expect 5-7 seconds longer lap times, at least. I mean, 30% less downforce is a DRASTIC difference..no amount of drag reduction can offset that

Removing the ONE thing that road cars are beginning to implement must be among the dumbest things ever. I said this when this was first announced and it still makes no sense. Introducing active aero makes sense, as that something even simpler cars have. They should also introduce active suspension for the same reason: F1 cannot be a series that doesn't even match what's sold on a 60k road car. That list is active aero, MGUH and active suspension. At least. Failing to make the tanks smaller also goes down as a huge, well, failure. I believe an MGUH would help in this respect, ironically. I'm glad they're making the cars shorter behind the driver. But now that the MGUH is gone they should have made that even shorter. This is just dumb imho. Also, spec end plates: nonono. F1 must avoid using spec parts unless it's absolutely necessary. Or just get a Dallara chassi for everyone and call the series Indy or something. This is truly ridiculous. I do think the new rules will work, that's not the problem here. They just feel like they asked the UN to pen them down. What happened to the 6 gear gearbox? Still a thing?

they should bring back refueling and tire wars

if f1 wants to be the forefront of tech, they need to allow more discrete technologies, many of which are available on road cars. active suspension, front regen, MGUH, active aero, e-fules - put it all on the car. since there is a cost cap, the argument for the sport becoming too expensive goes away, and you are left with fast, cutting edge cars.

Let's enjoy 2025 season cuz it'll be the last one (until 2030) to have real cars, not toy and artificial ones.

Ah, this is chaos. They're making actions to fix issues but those fixes create more issues. I really don't understand how the biggest manufacturers and rule makers mess up this much to make things better. Horrendous...

ditching the mgu-h as the only way to recharge the batteries under acceleration while *adding* more discharge power seems really silly

F1 rule-making is evidence that techno-civilization has hit the wall of very diminishing returns. now, it's more creative gaming of rule-making processes in a closed system. the driving is impressive (w/ a few notable exceptions) & some races are fun to watch (if you understand what to watch for). & the politics are instructive for psycho-drama enthusiasts & corporate weenies.

I think that from '26 onwards the only F1 contet I'll keep an eye on will be liveries at lauch, and the not-so-occasional-anymore one-offs.

I think F1 in general is not sustainable anymore as it is. The racing is most of the time boring since they can't overtakie without DRS or with the new regulation more electrical power and if raced hard the drivers beginn to cry. With the rising fanbase of WEC and the great sportcar racing in other series I feel you can have more fun watch races in other series. Another reason, at least for me, is that the price to watch f1 races in person or in streams is so high. I have to pay like 200€+ to watch F1, meanwhile I pay 40ish€ for WEC and DTM is free

This is 2014 all over again, we will see the consequences of pushing out Ross Brawn and taking in Stefano Domenicali. The problem with Stefano is that the progress on F1 has stalled. He is more political and business but he doesn't understand the technical side of what the car and the fans need. The fact that he listened to the teams , took away the front electric motors that would support the green movement and would also generate alot of energy under braking. A calendar that seems like a child picked the destinations. I only see F1 going down if this continues. Chase Carey, Sean Bratches and Ross Brawn built what you see and enjoy today and with F1 going back to it's political party goals first and not sport first means the business will fail

in my opinion the new 2026 cars look gorgeous, way better than the current ones reminds me of some of the older cars as well as indycats

The cars will be slower again. Not great. Wonder when (or if) we'll see a faster cars than those one we had in 2004 or 2020.

Worrying about fuel burn of the race cars is down right crazy…. If you have ever been to a race F1 or other race, but let’s stay with F1, have you ever seen the amount of fuel burnt by the Fans getting to the race? Let alone all the fuel burnt for celebrities to fly to the track…. The race cars are a mere drop in the bucket…

Simplify and add lightness.

Barely any shorter, barely any lighter. Won't make any difference to how the drivers feel, or make the cars more agile. They need to cut 1 metre out of the length, and 100kg out of the car, and then make the wheels and tyres and suspension lighter too.

Can someone start an NA V10 formula series? All we need are light weight and powerful monsters out there. Nothing too fancy. And with refueling bc its not run by pansies. No fuel use limits either. It might not be as fast as F1 but it could capture the spirit better. And just maybe it will fun! Smoking is encouraged as well in the garage.

seems slow and unpromising...

What a mess. Cars already have to coast during races, this will further make the situation worse.

Except for the smaller car sizes those regulations suck.

Put a wind turbine fixture at the back of the car to recoup electricity spent? (this is a troll science)

These are probably the dumbest regulations in F1 history. Shows what happens if the teams have to much to say in areas like this. And there’s nothing in this that makes F1 better for the fans. They should have made the cars even smaller and lighter, put a second turbo in the V6 for better sound and a small front MGU-K which could be used as manually operated AWD-overtake mode.

It’s fun to watch them slowly become Indy Cars.

Yes, we'll need new regulations PDQ, these are woefully inadequate.

It's easy to complain about these new regs but the amount of compromise... I am not sure they made the right choice.

You better make the overtake at the last lap. Probably if you use the overtake mode, you will need to recharge the battery again, by losing some performance on the next lap.

I'm glad they reduced the dimensions. That's the only thing that makes me happy.

I mean if cars burn more fuel they could of brought refuelling back, such a missed opportunity.

BRING BACK THE F****** V12s

They been afraid of AUDI is the most stupid and pathetic thing ever

Instead of removing the mgu-h they could've just ask Garrett Motion to make a standard MGU-H for all the teams. They basically make the one Mercedes put in the A45 AMG and the Lotus Emira. The m139 I think.

I fear this new minimum weight will mean full carbon cars in 2026. They really should have intervened in this area, the black cars are so ugly

Danke, endlich mal ein Deutscher der es vernünftig knapp erklären kann. Ob auf deutsch oder englisch ist egal - der Akzent vermittelt ein gewisses mindset😂

It seems extremely lame

Those waterheads at FIA should first question themselves: Does the viewer/fan cares? You know, the people who actually watch the sport, the people without there is no sport and no FIA. Do you as a fan truly want a different engine? Or less fuel burn? Do you care if there is a turbo or MGU-H in the car??? Or if there are new manufacturers?? No. We only care if the races are close and enjoyable. Less weight, smaller cars, yes, those are good. A new engine, which seems to be totally idiotic, will not help, probably will make the field wider again. It is so annoying when leaders of anything get so distant from the real task they are having, and from the people who pay their bills... and transform something only based on their internal bickering and short sighted money gains... Disgusting.

This type of goofiness is why I watch Idemitsu Spec Miata

Can we get a Le Mans BOP analysis?

Does the front aero fail safe if youre going 200mpg into a hairpin? This whole idea seems dumb.

What’s with this obsession with electrification. Haven’t we (human beings) figured out yet that BATTERY electric vehicles are MORE harmful to the environment than ICE cars? They also create MORE carbon footprint, not less, up until approx. 60000-70000miles on the odometer. What’s the relevance of this on racing cars????

Just go back to the 2000s regulations. All problems would be solved and F1 would be more exciting again, instead of getting more and more boring.

How to solve sustainability problems? Race mainly in Europe and few other coutries (Japan, Brazil e.g.), limiting the logistic costs and consequent emissions. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Just go ahead and put the drivers in all premier racing series in power wheels. Style the bodies from F1, IRL, Nascar, etc. My bet is on the Barbie Corvette....lol

If everyone would just stop watching this modern f1 crap things would change for the better real quick.

People don’t get that F1 is the pinnacle of development regarding to cars. They choose to make the engine smaller because thats the shift in todays cars. Same regarding to adding E-Motors - every freaking car has it now. Whats win on Sunday sells on Monday. Still and always be the moto of racing Bringing V10 or the V8 is going back in development though should it be more exciting for us to watch it is not the way cars are going. They made some good changes for the aero to make the racing closer so we can see some more overtaking Because THATS THE ACTUAL PROBLEM NOT THE ENGINES

Formula E is only getting faster. Gen 3 karts already have comparable 0-60s to F1. The FIA should allow the front motors.

By then, I had stopped competing in the Formula 1 Fantasy League. I gave up hope on Lewis Hamilton at Scuderia Ferrari. Because I'm not going to blend my blood with Italia Red. Plus, I prefer driving the 550 Barchetta over the Testarossa and I think the F40 is better than the F50 in terms of looks Enzo seems overpowered so I go with the 250 GT LM and GTO because I feel like I hate myself for driving a Ferrari as much as Sega hates me for driving a Ferrari because Sega is blue like Sonic. And About the 2026 Regs, Audi Vs Ferrari will be a thing. And I care less for Honda in F1 to avoid The IndyCar.

All this engine stuff is ridiculous. F1 traveling between EACH race spews more emissions than thousands of cars do. 20+ times a year. Easily. That's the same mentality as where I live here in NY. The Guvvna here has passed a law that makes us pay $0.05 for each brown paper grocery bags for us to put our food wrapped mostly in plastic containers, just to throw the brown paper bag away in a plastic garbage bag. Feel me. LOL.

I don't think any real world consumer actually cares about road relevance in F1, and it's always extremely superficial and applied in the worst possible way to make things worse instead of better. Variable suspension? VVT/VVL? Active cooling intakes? Variable geometry turbos? Nuh-huh, we don't want none of that, give us the idiotic hybrid system that burns fuel to charge the battery (20% energy loss in the best case vs just sending that power to the wheels btw)

Car re still too long, but it is deffinitelly step to right way. The design reminds me mostly 2004-2008 era which was my favourite, but without milions innecessery wings all around the car. SO cleaner looking. SO I love new design. Also even tho those measurements doesn't seems a lot smaller, that car in presentation looked prytty small. For with of the cars - 2003-2008 era had 1800mm, previous era 2000mm. And older eras also. Narrower cars are better to stree circuits, but 1800 might be bad for safety, so 1900 seems to me freat compromise and I am happy about it. But lenght of the car is still too long. it is off course better from 3600 to 3400 between frond and back axles, but again my favourite era had only 3050. So anothe 200-300mm needs to be trimed. Also there is second option how to shorten the cars even more and that is even slihtly narrower rear wing and move it between back wheels instead of being behind them. For engine - I don't like it. It is too electrical and too inpractical. Bring us back normal simple petrol engines without this electric crap. OR - if you wanna really try something groundbraking, instead of Petrol+electric engine go for full hydrogen engine. It have probably better future than this politically pushed-forward electric crap that tries to go against any logic.

Let's ignore all the eco crap lies , Let's chuck the electric crap in the bin , V8's running on petrol , Small wings , big tyres =good racing .. problem solved , problem staying solved

I strongly believe that we as fans are responsible for the clusterfuck that the 2026 regs are. Only thing being talked about is more overtaking and how are we making the racing more speactacular etc. In return FIA is always changing rules to please everyone. WE JUST NEED CONVERSION. Let the rules stabilise for 5 years and eventually the top 3-4 teams will all be on a level playing field, especially during a budget cap era. We are currently seeing ferrari and mclaren finally catching up only for 2026 to come and then a single team dominating again. Let the rules marinate, let teams catch up and eventually the races will once again be fun. Take the 2021 season for example. Nobody remembers the overtakes. Everyone remembers the epic title fight. Why are we always trying to reinvent the wheel??

Instead of all these attempts to reduce outwashing by restricting specific aero elements, can the FIA not just quantitatively limit the total amount of outwash using CFD and wind tunnel measurements?

It's the same damn argument every single time. 2009, 2014, 2019, whatever. Every single time a new idea came out, people cried over how painfully slow the new cars were going to be. Instead, you ended up with cars that didn't go so fast on the straights, but managed to beat the old cars in almost every other way. What people need to understand is that these are just concept cars showing general ideas of what they are going to be like. The constructors will always research these concepts and push out something better and more efficient for the sake of winning the championships. This is the beauty of F1 not being a spec series: Even with these regulations, nothing is set in stone in terms of techs and R&D. You cannot truly anticipate how the cars are going to be made and upgraded in reality. And don't even try to claim that this will be the slowest F1 ever. This sport has come a long way that even today's backmarker can easily outperform the legendary McLaren MP4/4. You need to be extremely backward to be slower than the cars in the 80s, let alone those cars without any wings in the 50s.

safety is about the only thing that improved. the size and weight decreased insignificantly. Meanwhile everything else seem to get a lot worse. 2026-2030 looks grim right now.

Speed is immaterial - what people want is competitive racing - not one team domination. There should be MORE teams, not fewer.

If you want electric powered formula cars, there is formula E already... Personelly I am loosing interest in F1. I have been following F1 since late sevetees when F1 cars were raw sounding ICE powered beasts, nowdays they sound lame. Yes I am aware that they are superfast nowdays, but F1 have lost a big part of the soul of F1, the pinnacle of motorsport.

Designed by committee. What a cluster f$&@. Hybrid element is a waste of time when using synthetic fuel. Should use a nice light atmospheric v8 and keep the low drag active aero.

Removal of MGU-H was a really bad decision. It's just insane to reduce efficiency.

Let's hope in a mandatory post race burp contest. That could regenerate some interest.. And sourley it could make more sense. What a disgrace F1 had become..

Racing is getting neutered because dispassionate people with sticks up asses are ruining it. If people were concerned with safety, why don't the regulations allow ABS in F1?

Just more proof of how much modern Formula One sucks. Bio-fuel + N/A engines of more than 6 cylinders. Give us that and let the teams do the rest.

The whole thing now is about how to produce sufficient electrical energy, changing the aerodynamics to save energy, deploy more electrical energy than the car in front to overtake. is this now Formula E, it sounds exactly the same.

Do you think using rules that include valved air ducts could be used to reduce drag, increase downforce, or adjust balance would be an interesting idea? I imagine that opening, closing or restricting airflow through ducts could be done in a very reliable way with safe failure modes in ,most cases. I don’t know if that’s safer or easier than having to design wing elements that fail into a high downforce configuration. Maybe ducts just aren’t that effective and are too complex, heavy, or large compared to other solutions for improving efficiency with the 50/50 hybrid, rear axle powertrain.

Burning "bio fuel" instead of standard fuel is not exactly zero impact... Long past time to stop letting the manufacturers have so much power in setting their own regulations.

This gonna be a MASSIVE failure imo. This is just gonna be a test phase until we move on to pure ICE power units with e fuel.

Well, if enviromentally friendly cars is what you're after, it makes sense to reduce weight for performance rather than have a powerful heavy car. And it makes sense to reduce drag to achieve high straightline speed over having to push a brick harder through the air. Cars should have less power, be more compact, have less weight and be more slippery, in other words, be more efficient.

So the team who could develop an OP engine will basically dominate this regulation??

Personally I like the more nimble looking rendering. But I doubt, that the engine regulations are so clever.

GP2 car GP2. Car is better now? , much slower than before. Aaargh.

MGU H gets road revelant.. F1 takes it out lol They should take this hybrid shit out.

They genuinely should scrap the entire regulation set and make a new one for 2028 or 2029, its a complete diaster

The only thing that makes sense is making the cars smaller and lighter, everything else is stupid.

worst set of rules ever, in my opinion, it's all too compromised, instead they should simplify things, but they never do. they only thing I like is that cars will finally be smaller, cause size had gotten out of hands

Saying that the fuel is carbon neutral or whatever we all know is BS. There is no way producing that fuel and flying it around the world and buring it in F1 cars is carbon nutral. I think they should still be using kinetic energy

F1 is going to up as a one make championship, designed, built and looked after by the FIA so no team can touch anything on the car apart from a pit stop for tyres in cars running a formula e drivetrain to keep the eco mentalists happy. They have been trying to ruin the sport for years like when F2 cars were faster than F1.

I think it's a step in the right direction. Abandon electric motors and batteries and go back to high-revving internal combustion engines, focusing on environmental awareness. It is rooted in reality.

its a really ugly, messy compromise. And probably quite slow.

They will have to introduce front engines to maintain credibility

The most politically motivated set of regs yet. The teams have too much say... and VAG shouldn't have had the say they did, for them to only end up using MGU-H on Porsche's.. what a joke.

Interesting to see the FIA reducing floor and diffuser aero in favour of larger rear wings, since floor aero is more efficient, surely it would make more sense to apply the wing changes and in washing boards to current floor regs, cars have more downforce so laptimes are faster, and teams don't have to engineer to different floor regs

What a disaster this will be. Why is nobody listening to the fans and the drivers??? Woke bullshit!