Just one day after the FIA published its plans for the revolution that will take place in 2026 with the new regulations, concerns immediately emerged about some of the ideas that will be implemented.
After the FIA Technical Advisory Committee set out some of the issues at stake in an online meeting held on Thursday, a request emerged from Team Principals that the topic of the 2026 rules be at the center of a meeting to be held in paddock in Montreal on Saturday morning to discuss some concerns.
The meeting will be part of a semi-regular meeting with F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and other executives to discuss the latest F1 issues, but fears about the future are real. At the moment, the focus of concern is that some teams believe the FIA has brought forward elements of the regulations that they do not believe will work as intended.
Among these is the aerodynamic concept underlying the project, as several teams suggest that the new cars could be particularly slow due to the energy problems shown by future Power Units and the significant reduction in aerodynamic load, necessary to also reduce the resistance to advancement precisely to meet the needs of the new units that will power the single-seaters.
Another element that the teams want to discuss is the weight reduction plan, with a rough idea that the cars will be 30 kg lighter than current cars, despite a certain increase in the mass of the batteries, given the focus placed on electric with the new regulations. It is no mystery that the FIA itself wanted to go further down, but found opposition from the teams, who fear not being able to get close to the minimum threshold by having to spend large amounts of money for even marginal improvements.
F1 2026 FIA rendering
Photo by: FIA
The teams also want more details on the plans for active aerodynamics, with the FIA saying it wants to introduce a dual configuration system: one with a higher load for use in cornering, the Z mode, one with low drag to reduce consumption on straights, the X mode. Concerns about active aerodynamics had already emerged in the past, as anticipated by Motorsport.com a few months ago.
FIA deadlines
While concerns about the state of the regulations have been brewing for some time now, it was the FIA’s decision to publish the regulations this week that brought the issue back into focus.
The FIA’s actions have effectively shown the teams that many decisions about what will happen in 2026 have not already been made and highlighted that there is no brake on the plan to finalize everything by the end of the month with approval of the World Council. After that date it will become more complex to make detected changes.
Under the FIA’s International Sporting Code (ISC), any regulatory changes which the FIA deems “likely to have a substantial impact on the technical design of the Automobile and/or the balance of performance between Automobiles” must be published on 30 June , a year and a half before its entry into force.
After this period, reviews require buy-in from the teams, which could prove problematic as it is known that not all teams agree on what should be done. Some teams would like to delay the publication of the rules until October, to give the FIA more time to fix what there are currently still several fears about. This would represent a good solution, also because the teams are not allowed to work on the aerodynamic elements until January 1st of next year anyway, so there would be time to work further behind the scenes defining a more solid regulation.
F1 2026 FIA rendering
Photo by: FIA
However, it appears that a proposal to do so was blocked by a team who felt it was important for the FIA to stick to the June deadline.
Article 18.2.4 of the CSI states that a shorter notice period for the publication of the rules than the June 30 deadline is only possible with the unanimous agreement of the teams, which does not appear to be possible given the current situation.
However, one source suggested that the FIA still has the opportunity under clause 18.2.4 to act with the support of only a majority of teams, thus being able to publish the rules in October if it is deemed there are justifiable reasons for to do it.
The regulations state that: “In exceptional circumstances, and if the FIA considers that the modification in question is essential for the protection of the championship, challenge or series in question, the agreement of the majority of regularly entered competitors will be sufficient.”
In submission documents on Thursday, the FIA said ratification of the regulation by the World Automobile Council is expected by June 28.
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