Have F1’s upcoming 2026 regulations hit a snag?

Red Bull’s current dominance over the Formula 1 field has many fans looking to the future.

2026, to be exact.

That is when the sport is set to unveil its latest regulation changes. While the changes are aimed at reducing the size of the cars, shifting to sustainable fuels, and improving racing many fans are hoping that with the introduction of new regulations, some of Red Bull’s rivals will find a way to level the playing field.

However, according to one recent report those upcoming regulations might need some changes of their own.

One of the many changes F1 is expected to implement with the upcoming regulations is “moveable aero,” aimed at reducing drag on the straights. Nikolas Tombazis, the Director of the Single Seater Department of the FIA, generally outlined what that would entail last summer when meeting with the media.

“There will definitely be a change of incidence of the wing on the straight to achieve the low drag,” he said. “But there will definitely not be any slowing down of the front car by some means. That simply wouldn’t work.”

Prior to Tombazis’ comments some theorized that F1 would introduce an element that would in effect slow down cars in front, a “reverse DRS” if you will, to increase opportunities for overtaking, and close racing.

However, Tombazis dismissed that notion, and then elaborated on what F1 is aiming for in the 2026 regulations.

“There will be something equivalent to the current DRS, which will basically enable the following car that is within a certain limit to potentially get in a position to attack,” he added. “What form that mechanism will take: whether it will be an additional change of an aerodynamic component on the straight, or an additional change of the aerodynamic component in the corner, or whether it will be part of the energy of the engine....which of the three, we’re still doing our best simulations to arrive to the best possible solution.

“What we don’t want to have is cars basically diving past each other on the straight. We want cars arriving close to each other at the braking point and there being a fight, and drivers having to use their skill.”

The result was an idea for a moveable rear wing configuration that would work in conjunction with DRS, that would allow the car “ ... to run in a high-downforce configuration in corners to help deliver grip, before shifting to a low drag configuration on the straights to help boost straightline speed.”

However, according to a new report from Motorsport, simulator data has unveiled some alarming findings.

According to their reporting, “ ... when the rear wing was in its most low-drag configuration and the engine was at full power, the car was almost undriveable – with multiple examples of drivers spinning on straights under acceleration or being unable to take the smallest of curves without the rear stepping out.”

One source told Motorsport that the only way to keep cars from spinning under this configuration in the simulator was to drive so carefully and conservatively that “ ... lap times ended up being slower than current Formula 2 machinery.”

Reportedly, FIA officials visited various teams to get an idea of how this was happening in their simulator runs, and as a result the idea for moveable aero in the upcoming regulations has been altered. As reported by Motorsport, “ ... the FIA has decided that the 2026 aero plan will need to incorporate both the front and rear wing moving in conjunction with each other if the cars are going to deliver the performance characteristics hoped for. By ensuring that the two wings work together, it should help reduce the aero balance offset that has been causing trouble in the simulator.”

Rule changes are nothing new for F1, in fact, they are at the heart of the sport. As outlined by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg in their tremendous book The Formula:

Even the leagues that do make major changes usually hold themselves to about one seismic shift per century. When American football introduced the forward pass or the NBA implemented the three-point line, those revisions to the rulebook table-flipped the entire sport. They upended how the games were played in ways expected, unexpected, and absolutely unthinkable—and they reverberated for decades afterward.

Formula 1 does that every couple of years.

The reason is that F1 is as much a technology problem to be solved as it is a competition to be won. It constantly updates itself to stay at the forefront of elite car development and to prevent the competition from becoming static—change and evolution are the entire point of the sport.

Evolution takes time.

And a few different drafts, apparently.

It should be noted that this is all part of the process, and that the teams as well as the FIA will go through various revisions before landing on a final set of regulations. Still, it is interesting to see yet again the sport is working to improve racing, and make things more exciting for the fans.

What solution the sport lands on — and whether that solution delivers the ultimate goal of better racing — remains to be seen.

But it is something fans are certainly hoping for.