Formula 1 has constantly been in search of extremely close racing with lots of overtaking as almost every regulation change is designed to help further reach that goal - and 2026 is no different. This year will introduce what’s arguably the biggest rule switch in the championship’s history, with changes to both the chassis and power unit after four seasons of ground-effect cars where racing was often tight, but stale.
In the 2025 campaign, for example, a grand prix was won from pole on 16 of 24 occasions as such a level playing field made it tricky for drivers to gain the approximate 0.5-1s advantage needed to perform an overtake. What obviously didn’t help is how huge the cars became with the regulated minimum weight being 800kg - up 180kg from 2010 - while downforce levels were incredibly high as a result of the engineers constantly searching for that extra millisecond of performance.
