F1 2026 rule tweaks will open door for “different concepts”

The recent changes to Formula 1’s technical regulations for 2026 will give teams more freedom to explore different design concepts, says Williams chief James Vowles.

Recently, the rules prescribing F1’s new car designs for 2026 have been tweaked following concerns that the new generation of cars would be too slow.

The new cars, which will be paired to overhauled engine regulations with a bigger reliance on electric energy, will have significantly less drag and wake turbulence to improve the racing, but the latest version of the rules has increased the amount of downforce they will generate to bring cornering speeds closer to current levels.

The FIA relaxed limitations around the front wing area and the front floor, with scope to add bargeboards, and the size of the diffuser has been increased compared to the draft that was presented to teams in June and received mixed reviews.

The changes were welcomed by the teams, not just because of the increase in performance but because there will now be more freedom for designers to explore different concepts. That could lead to cars that are visibly much more different across the grid compared to the current generation of ground-effect-based machinery, where teams soon converged on very similar concepts.

“We now have more freedom where you could see a different direction that you’re going in,” Vowles said. “So there’s more flow controlling devices in place, which lead to downforce, but differentiation between teams. What’s been really positive as well is there’s still some small areas of improvement around the diffuser.

“What’s great to see is teams in F1 working hand-in-hand in order to improve that, because every time you make a change like that, it has some consequences.

“I think what you’re going to see now is instead of all teams working in the same few millimetres, there’ll be some different concepts. I personally think that is good for the sport.”

F1 2026 FIA car renders

Photo by: FIA

Vowles’ McLaren counterpart Andrea Stella also felt giving engineers more freedom will lead to a bigger spread of designs.

“With the recent release of the car geometry, especially from an aerodynamic point of view, basically two main things have been achieved,” he explained. “One is a much higher downforce level, and the second one is more freedom. We welcome both.

“We welcome more freedom. I think this will give teams the possibility to just use their knowledge, use their methodologies. The knowledge that has been accrued over the years, even if with different regulations, is a way of creating some differentiation.

“So, we’ve always been advocating this kind of approach and we welcome the fact that there will be more freedom.”