There is great uncertainty: on Thursday 11 April, the day after tomorrow, the FIA will deliver its draft 2026 regulations regarding chassis and aerodynamics to those present at the TAC (Technical Advisory Committee). We arrive at a fundamental step in the definition of the rules, given that the International Federation itself will have the obligation to close the dossier by the month of June before approval by the World Council.
It is a voluminous document, of at least twenty dense pages, in which the directions that Nikolas Tombazis, technical director of the single-seater area of the FIA, and his staff want to give to the next generation of F1 are detailed.
It should be remembered that, as the Concorde Agreement expires at the end of 2025, this regulatory package is not discussed in the F1 Commission, but is the total responsibility of the FIA which has the great opportunity to take back a power that in the last Governance was shared with the promoter and the 10 teams.
The responsibility is very big, because the 2026 single-seater was born in two phases: first the power unit was approved and now it's time to tighten the times on the chassis and aerodynamics given that from January 1st the teams will begin working at full capacity in the tunnel of the wind.
In reality, the FIA did not work in autarky, but sought the collaboration of the teams by setting up working groups to analyze the various proposals and identify their critical issues. With the idea of introducing a PU with a 50 percent power split between the combustion engine and the hybrid, it was discovered that in certain phases of the race there could be significant energy losses, thus the need arose to introduce mobile aerodynamics that allows maintaining good performance with a drastic reduction in drag.
Red Bull RB20: here is the rear wing, in 2026 it will be mobile with the addition of DRS
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
In the simulations, a mobile rear wing was studied which should have acted together with the DRS, favoring a drastic loss of drag, with an intervention that seemed the least complicated. The F1 model that took the name “Fangio”, however, showed great limitations. It's true that a good top speed was found, but it's equally true that a lot of grip was lost in the fast corners, the riskiest ones.
According to rumours, in fact, with the wing unloaded and the engine at full power the single-seater would have been undriveable with sudden spins and an unstable car at the rear. The simulation data says that the aerodynamic balance would have changed three times compared to today's values with the DRS open.
Charles Leclerc on the Ferrari SF-24: will we also have a movable front wing in 2026?
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Once the experiment failed, the FIA looked for another solution that would provide the desired advantages, without compromising the balance of the car: as we had already anticipated on Motorsport.con, both wings will become mobile, the front one as well as the rear one.
The novelty will make the new F1 cars even more complex, making the weight reduction that we want to pursue with decidedly more compact cars with narrower (1,800 mm) and shorter tracks more complicated. 16-inch tires had also been proposed, but Pirelli, in the last Technical Advisory Committee, opposed this to maintain the 18-inch standard that has been introduced since 2022.
There are those who fear the birth of “Frankenstein cars”, but Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull, who was the main opponent of the proposals under discussion is correcting his aim: “The FIA has listened to the suggestions of the teams and we are going into right direction. There is still a lot of work to do, but in the end we will all start from the same point.”
#Singleseater #mobile #wing #discussed #front
