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Shorter and lighter cars from 2026?

By Luis Vasconcelos

In AUTO ACTION’s latest issue on sale now and available digitally here, Luis Vasconcelos explores what the future of Formula 1 may look like beyond the current technical regulations.

This year F1 has entered a new era with the current generation of cars designed to improve racing, but the FIA and teams already believe further inroads must be made which could lead to narrower cars from 2026, Vasconcelos reports…

FORMULA ONE is already working on the Technical Regulations for the chassis that will be put in place from the 2026 World Championship, after years of discussing the future of the Power Units, with a compromise between the manufacturers planning to compete with the new generation of engines being reached only in August this year.

The FIA and the teams all agree that the current generation of cars is too long, too wide and too heavy, to the detriment of racing, so there’s a general consensus that, from 2026, the sport needs to go back to smaller, nimbler cars that will allow better wheel-to-wheel racing and facilitate overtaking.

With the regulations regarding the Power Units making sure the next generation of engines is far more compact than the current one – with ‘75-degree‘ V6 engines being mandatory and no MGU-H allowed anymore – the weight and the size of the Power Units will be smaller and lighter.

While the MGU-H weights only around 5kgs, the entire assembly it requires to function weighs up to 20kgs, so that’s already a serious reduction of weight.

Also, with stricter fuel consumption rules coming into effect and half the power output coming from the hybrid side of the Power Units, fuel tanks will be a lot smaller than the current ones and that has allowed the teams to agree that the wheelbase of the cars will be reduced to 3400mm, taking away between 200mm and 400mm from the current chassis.

The FIA and Formula 1 is looking at the possibility of introducing narrower cars similar to the ones seen between 2009 and 13 when the next set of Technical Regulations kick in 2026. Photo by Rainer Schlegelmilch

A return to narrower cars, reducing the maximum width of the chassis from the current 2000mm to the 1800mm the previous generation of Formula One chassis had, has also been agreed in principle and while that will reduce the amount of downforce generated by the underside of the cars – the ground effect is now the biggest generator of downforce in Formula One – it will increase top speeds, as the cars will generate less drag than now, adding to the chances of overtaking.

One area where there is no consensus for now regards the introduction of more mobile aerodynamic devices on top of the existing DRS.

On one side there are those who believe fully mobile front and rear wings for the cars following others would increase the chances of overtaking; on the other side is the group which maintains that overtaking shouldn’t be too easy and also fear there could be catastrophic failures of more aerodynamic devices with serious consequence to the drivers’ safety.

For now, the Technical Working Group is gathering as many opinions as possible with the intention of proposing a draft of the 2026 Technical Regulations for chassis by June 30 next year in order to have them ready for publication by the end of October 2023, thus giving the teams more than two years to do all the R&D they need in time for the debut of the new cars less than 30 months later.

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the latest issue of Auto Action.

AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport.