F1’s New Cars Behave Unlike Any Others. It’s All Down to New Aerodynamics

Formula 1’s 2026 machines are rewriting the sport’s 75-year-old rulebook on speed and sensation, and the first clue is the stopwatch. During preseason testing in Bahrain, Kimi Antonelli logged the week’s quickest lap yet still trailed 2025’s best test time by more than four seconds. Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion, told reporters the cars “feel slower than F2,” a claim the data refutes—his own lap was still ten seconds quicker than last year’s F2 pole at the same circuit—but the sentiment underscores a seismic shift in how the new cars behave. The culprit is a wholesale aerodynamic revolution designed to make grand-prix racers lighter, less glued to the asphalt and, in theory, more raceable.

Gone is the ground-effect philosophy that defined the 2022-25 regulations. Those cars relied on intricate floor tunnels to generate downforce by literally sucking the chassis toward the tarmac, encouraging ultra-low ride heights and corner speeds that rendered once-iconic bends like Spa-Francorchamps’ Eau Rouge nearly flat-out. The FIA estimates a 20-25 percent downforce reduction for 2026, enough to turn high-speed kinks back into genuine corners. “There was no skill,” said Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater director. “Now it becomes a corner.”

In place of floor-generated suction, the series has embraced a leaner aerodynamic package. Front and rear wings are narrower and simplified; the beam wing has been deleted; wheel fairings have vanished. Most striking is the expanded use of active aerodynamics. While the Drag Reduction System (DRS) of old only opened when a driver sat within one second of a rival, 2026’s movable front and rear flaps enter a sanctioned “Straight Mode” on every lap, snapping shut for “Corner Mode” when downforce is needed. The system trims drag automatically, helping drivers manage the larger electrical harvest from the revised hybrid power units and reach higher straight-line speeds despite the corner-time losses.

Teams must now weave active-aero parameters into their set-ups, balancing peak downforce against minimal drag. Tracks like Spa, with long straights and fast combinations, could see large portions of a lap run in Straight Mode. “If you go too greedy with the minimization of drag, that’s not necessarily the optimum,” warned Williams technical director Matt Harman. The wing transitions also alter ride heights and tire loads, adding another layer of complexity for engineers and drivers alike.

Inside the cockpit, the sensations are alien. George Russell says the reduced load makes the Mercedes easier to catch during understeer or oversteer moments, while Hamilton likens the sliding to “rallying a lot.” Liam Lawson, entering his second season with Racing Bulls, admits the car is “pretty tough to drive,” its lower grip forcing more wheel-spin and risking higher tire degradation. Yet that very unpredictability is being sold as a differentiator of talent. “Driving a car with less aero load is trickier,” noted Jan Monchaux, the FIA’s single-seater technical director. “That’s where a top driver may be able to shine more.”

Preseason laptimes are expected to tumble as teams unlock performance, mirroring the 2022 ground-effect introduction when an initial three-second deficit in Bahrain testing shrank to less than a second by season’s end. By 2030, the current ruleset’s scheduled conclusion, today’s four-second gap could again be history.

Not everyone is convinced the trade-off is worthwhile. Max Verstappen has already branded the cars “anti-racing” and “not a lot of fun,” arguing the combination of reduced downforce and complex energy management saps pure speed. Others, like rookie-of-the-year contender Gabriel Bortoleto, welcome the challenge. “Sometimes it’s enjoyable to have a car that has less grip. You play more with it,” he said.

Whether playful or painful, the 2026 generation is indisputably different. Slower through the quick corners, faster on the straights, constantly shape-shifting at the touch of a button, F1’s newest machines have swapped brute downforce for tactical aerodynamics—and the entire grid is still learning how to master them.