Red Bull Motorsports
F1
These are the new rules for the 2026 Formula One season
Formula One is racing to a new set of rules in what is the biggest shake up in the history of the World Championship. What’s changed and is it working?
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F1 has introduced ambitious new rules to make racing more exciting. The cars are smaller, lighter and more nimble, but with less aerodynamics, to make them easier to follow and overtake. And now drivers have a Boost button on the steering wheel to give them more power to overtake or defend, while Overtake Mode hands them a surge of power when they're within a second of the car in front. These complex systems have gamified terms to make the action easier to follow.
But the new rules are proving divisive: the cars are harder to drive, less rewarding and less predictable. Four-time World Champion Max Verstappen is leading a chorus of concern from drivers and team personnel across the paddock.
The 2022 RB18 flies around the Red Bull Ring
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The most dominant car in F1 history, the 2023 RB19
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Max Verstappen takes the 2024 RB20 to victory in Brazil
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The RB21 in testing for the 2025 season
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01
Why is F1 revising the rules?
F1 has constantly changed the rules to create an exciting new challenge for drivers and constructors. That’s because F1 is both a sport and a testing ground for new technology that will ultimately find its way on to the roads. To stay relevant to the automotive industry, F1 needs to be on the front row of technology.
The 2025 F1 cars used ground-effect aerodynamics to generate huge levels of grip, enabling drivers to corner so quickly that they could take some of the most difficult sections like Eau Rouge at the Belgian Grand Prix flat out. Oracle Red Bull Racing were the first to master the technology and dominated the 2022 and 2024 seasons, but by 2025 all teams were on top of the regulations and lap times were close across the field. That makes for exciting races, but on a technical level, the sport was reaching a point of stasis. These new regulations literally shake up the order.
With oil becoming an increasingly rare and expensive resource and the impact of climate change, the automotive industry is looking to cleaner alternative power sources and better fuel economy. The new F1 regulations are pitched to develop generators that produce 50 percent of the engine’s output from kinetic energy. That’s nearly three times more than in 2025. In a few years, this technology will be driving the next generation of road-going vehicles.
02
A big Boost for electric power
The RB21 from 2025
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The slimmer and smaller RB22
© Oracle Red Bull Racing/Red Bull Content Pool
The 1,600cc, V6 turbocharged internal combustion engines (ICE) that have been the driving F1 since 2014 are already the most fuel efficient in the world, but now they're supplemented by a sophisticated component that generates half the power unit’s 1,000bhp (745kW) from kinetic energy. The Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic (or MGU-K) is attached to the crankshaft and recovers kinetic energy from braking and from the engine idling and converts it to electricity. That energy is stored in a battery and can be used to improve fuel economy or deployed as a boost of energy for racing – activated by pushing a big blue button marked “Boost”.
The ICE part now uses 100 percent sustainable fuels to generate that power and as fuel efficiency improves, cars will be able to run lighter because they need less fuel.
03
Active aerodynamics and overtake Mode
Active aero in X-mode for straights
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Active aero in Z-mode for cornering
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To encourage overtaking, F1 used to use DRS (Drag Reduction System) – essentially a flap on the rear wing that opened on straights to lower the drag that was slowing the car and boost speed. Now performance is boosted by sophisticated moving pieces of aerodynamic kit. Flaps on the front and rear wings open and close automatically to help the car’s performance. On straight sections, X-mode (or Straight-Line Mode) opens the flaps, minimizing drag while Z-mode (or Cornering Mode) closes the flaps, adding downforce (more grip) to enable drivers to corner at higher speeds.
The simplified aero also reduces the wash of dirty air behind cars and that allows drivers to close and overtake more easily. When they’re running within a second of the car in front, instead of DRS, the cars trigger Overtake Mode – which gives the driver a surge of electric power to help them pass the car in front.
Liam Lawson at the start of the Australian Grand Prix
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04
Have the new rules worked?
Max Verstappen is not happy, comparing the new championship to Super Mario Kart and suggesting he could even walk away from F1. He’s not alone: defending World Champion Lando Norris is also not a fan and there’s been criticism across the paddock.
The new cars are unpredictable which causes knock-on effects: they suffer from lags in power as the engine management system diverts power to charge the batteries (known as clipping). In the most extreme cases, drivers are left with just 50 percent of their horsepower as all MGU switches automatically to recharging the battery. Suddenly, they're a hazard to the other drivers who are expecting them to be moving much more quickly.
To avoid clipping, the drivers have to lift and coast on straights to recharge the battery losing time when they should be racing flat out.
Isack Hadjar defends from Nico Hulkenberg
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Race starts have also been chaotic, with some cars much quicker off the line and drivers swerving wildly to avoid cars that have bogged down. At the opening round, Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson narrowly avoided colliding with Franco Colapinto at the start.
And the drivers experience wild surges in power when activating Overtake Mode. At the Japanese Grand Prix, a 350kW (400bhp) boost to Ollie Bearman’s Haas propelled the car towards the rear of Colapinto. Bearman swerved and crashed heavily into the barrier at high speed, wrecking the car and injuring his knee.
In the long gap between the Japanese Grand Prix and Miami, a commission of team bosses, F1 and governing body the FIA agreed to modify the rules to smooth out performance and make the cars easier to handle.
05
What are the changes to the new rules?
Max Verstappen exits the pits
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The revised rules are intended to make the cars easier to drive and safer across the grid. To reduce clipping, the total amount of permitted recharge on a lap has been reduced from 8MJ to 7MJ, which reduces the amount of energy needed to be recovered. The recharge levels are even lower at half of the circuits to tailor racing to different tracks. Super Clipping, where the engine recharges the battery without the need to lift and coast, is now more effective. This means drivers can spend more time with their foot down.
The boost will be capped at an extra 150kW (200bhp) of power and Overtake mode will be reduced from 350kW to 250kW (335bhp) in key parts of the circuit.
Reducing clipping means cars should end Qualifying with a charged battery, which will improve race stars. F1 is also trialling measures such as a "low-power start detection system" which will identify cars with abnormally low acceleration shortly after clutch release. Those cars will use the MGU-K to top up their power while a warning light will alert other drivers to slow-moving cars.
06
What else is new this season?
All change: The tyres will also be new for 2026
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The cars have also shed weight, dropping 30kg (66lbs) to a minimum total weight of 768kg (1693lbs) – that’s about half the kerb weight of a Ford Puma. The weight reduction comes in part by slimming the chassis from 2,000mm to 1,900mm and shortening the cars from 3,600mm to 3,400mm. These lighter cars are intended to be more agile and maneuverable as part of a raft of changes geared to encourage closer racing.
Smaller tires with no loss of grip
The Pirelli tires are also slightly smaller with the width of the front tires reduced by 25mm (1in) and the rears by 30mm (1.2in). The tires will also be trimmed from 720mm diameter to 705-710mm (0.5in). With lightweight cars and reduced downforce and less drag, tyre wear is more or less at the same level.
07
New teams and new engine suppliers
For the first time in a decade, 11 teams are on track as Cadillac join F1, running with Ferrari power units until their own engine program is up and running in 2029. New engine manufacturers have entered the competition: Mercedes and Ferrari are joined by Audi and the returning Honda, who join forces with Aston Martin. Backed by Ford, Red Bull Powertrains are building their own engines to provide the power units for Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls.
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