Formula 1’s new regulations stall or success?
By Nathan Devlin
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile or FIA oversees F1’s rules and regulations. At the end of each year the FIA introduces new regulations that are implemented the following year. These new regulations can be in any area from the aerodynamics to the chassis, to the engine.
For 2026 the FIA has introduced a huge set of regulation changes that drastically change the look of the car.
The 2026 regulations promised to make the cars lighter with more electric power and improved efficiency. There is one area that is causing a lot of concern for non-Ferrari powered teams. That is race starts. During the second test teams found out just how hard it is to launch the new F1 cars off the line. What should be a simple launch turns into a complex process of razor-thin timing, turbo lag and extremely small windows.
The new engines introduced for 2026 have 50% engine power and 50% electrical battery power.
To launch off the line, you must build turbo pressure, drivers must hold the engine at extremely high RPMs (revs per minute) for almost 10 seconds before letting go.
Missing this timing by even a second and the turbo fails to spool correctly; the car stalls and the launch is failed. In 2026 that doesn’t simply mean just losing a few places it means losing huge amounts of places.
The issue isn’t as simple as just slow starts these issues show the possibility of cars not moving at all. Teams have privately admitted that they are worried about incidents at race starts. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri said: “Its’s a recipe for disaster.”
Oscar Piatsri following his win in Azerbaijan (Getty Images)
There are a few ways to fix this issue one is shortening the time between the last car joining the grid and the start sequence. Using a smaller turbo charger meaning they wouldn’t need to rev the engine as high, but they will sacrifice power. Allowing the battery to go below 50 km/h to help the turbo.
Another is being discussed is doing the two formation laps instead of the usual one. Ferrari protested this at the end of 2025 and made the FIA aware of it, which was ignored. Now politics may overshadow safety.
For the first time since 1993 an F1 car will have active parts. In 1992 the Williams F1 team introduced the active suspension which was a massive advantage that took Nigel Mansell to his world title in the iconic Red 5.
For 2026 all cars will have active front and rear wings, when the cars hit a straight away the front wing flexes down and the rear wing flaps open like DRS.
At the end of the morning session of the second test in Bahrain on Thursday February 19th during a practise start the Ferrari powered cars (Ferrari and Haas) shot off the line with the Mercedes of George Russell with massive wheel spin and the McLaren of Lando Norris seemed to stall on the grid.
During testing teams are only allowed to run one driver per session, for example Max Verstappen could drive in the morning but could switch with new teammate Isack Hadjar in the afternoon, but they couldn’t switch mid-session.
Max Verstappen following his pole position in Abu Dhabi (Getty Images)
Testing in 2026 looks a bit different. After the Barcelona shakedown teams brought very basic spec cars, that were carried over to the first official public test in Bahrain.
Usually during the one and only test before the opening round of an F1 season teams will run one spec of car across all three days to testing. But due to the separate tests in 2026 cars look different across all three.
During the first private test in Barcelona in late January teams brought what is known as A spec cars meaning they are very basic in design philosophy and aerodynamics. By the next test a week later many teams brought new parts.
Ferrari brought the biggest change as on the second day of the final test in Bahrain, they introduced a new rear wing that takes the active aero part of the regulations to the extreme.
Typically, the 2026 rear wing flap opens in the middle allowing air to flow through like the DRS system used in F1 between 2011-2025. Instead, this Ferrari innovation does a backwards 180 allowing air to flow in a more complex and easier way.
Fluorescent paint or Flo-viz for short is lime or orange coloured paint is used in testing to check air flow as the paint is put on the car and as it drives around the track the air shows the engineers where the air flow is.