2025 vs 2026: What's Changed In The 2026 Cars?

New season, new cars, and this year the changes are bigger than ever before. The new 2026 cars have hit the track, and eagle-eyed fans will have noticed they are visibly different to last year's racers. But just how different? Car size, weight, engine, tyres, even new and flashy safety lights. In this video, we show you everything that is new in the 2026 cars. Let's have a look. First of all, the new cars are noticeably smaller than last year. The new for 2026 regulations stipulate the new cars must be 20cm shorter, 10cm narrower, and around 30kg lighter, with a shortened wheelbase that makes them more nimble and more responsive through the corners. The tyres are also smaller. Each car is still fitted with 18-inch Pirellis, but this season they are narrower to cut drag and trim off more weight. These new, lighter, smaller, more responsive cars also have some big changes to the bodywork. Firstly, there's two elements from the 2025 cars you'll have noticed are gone in the new machines. The arches over the two front wheels, which were first seen on the 2022 generation cars, are now gone, and the beam wing that was situated underneath the rear wing on last year's Challengers has also been removed. The front wings and rear wings have also been significantly updated in 2026. The front wings in particular are undergoing a major overhaul. The elements are narrower than last year's equivalents, while the outer sections on the ends of the wing have rapidly become a key area of aerodynamic development for the teams. This part of the car heavily influences its overall aero performance, so expect to see the teams working hard on the details to gain an advantage over their rivals. But perhaps the most significant and visually impactful change is the introduction of Active Aero. The old DRS system the cars have used since 2011 is gone, and instead the drivers can now adjust the angle of both their front and rear wing, depending where they are on track. In the corners, the wings close to provide maximum downforce and maximum grip through the turns. But on designated straights, the drivers open the flats and flatten the wings to reduce drag and boost top speed. And unlike DRS, this feature is available to every driver on every lap, regardless of how close they are to another car. So the drivers don't have DRS to deploy when battling with their rivals on track anymore, but they do have two new energy modes to help them when they're racing wheel-to-wheel. The new boost button gives drivers access to maximum power from their hybrid power units, providing they have enough charge in their battery. They can use this whenever they like across the lap for attack or defense, but they have to pick their moment carefully and think strategically about when to deploy all that power and when to recharge the battery. In addition, the new overtake mode pops up on the steering wheel screen when available and assists drivers attacking the car ahead. Like the old DRS system, it becomes available when the driver is within one second of the car in front. When in use, it gives them access to extra electrical energy, which they can deploy to overtake or pressure the driver ahead at a single detection point on track. A big feature of the last generation of F1 cars was the ground effect floors, but that too has changed. Garner the intricate ground effect tunnels on the bottom of the cars, which suck them down onto the track, and instead, in 2026, the cars have flatter floors with extended diffusers and bigger openings. This means less downforce and greater ride heights, which should also eliminate the bouncing or horpusing we sometimes saw with the previous generation of cars. Those are the most visible changes to the outside of the new cars, but the power unit has undergone a big overhaul too, thanks to big changes to the power unit regulations. The new cars still run 1.6 liter V6 turbo hybrids, but the power balance has shifted significantly. For 2026, the internal combustion engine output has been decreased, with electrical power tripled. In fact, the new units have roughly a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power. To supply all that electrical power, the new Energy Recovery System, or ERS, can now recharge the battery with twice as much energy per lap as they did last year, through things like recovery under braking or lifting off the throttle at the end of straights. The new units have also been simplified, as the heat recovery system used on the old ones, known as the MGUH, has gone. That complex part of the power unit added weight and lacked road relevance, so it doesn't feature in F1's new era. The internal combustion element is also set for a major change. In 2026, for the first time ever, F1 engines run on advanced sustainable fuels. These have already been trialed in F2 and F3, and can be made from sustainable components such as municipal waste, non-food biomass, and carbon capture, and they must be independently certified to meet strict sustainability standards. Formula 1 is always pushing to improve safety, and the new 2026 cars are even more advanced in this respect than their 2025 equivalents. From this year, the driver's survival cell will be subjected to more rigorous tests, while the roll hoop has been strengthened to take 23% more load, meaning it can hold roughly the The front impact structure design has also been tweaked, so it separates in two stages to give drivers greater protection in big crashes when there are secondary impacts after the initial contact. You'll have noted new and revamped lights around the car. The new safety lights on the mirrors flash when a car significantly slows down or stops on track. They'll also switch on when the car is in neutral position during race starts. On the back of the car, and in addition to its existing uses, the lights now have new functions depending on the car's battery state, showing when the car is harvesting energy or delivering less than the 350 kilowatt of power. All bets are now off. Pre-season testing is over, and there's everything to play for. The development race is already relentless, and no one can predict who will come out on top. The new regs offer a complete reset, and the teams have faced a huge challenge to design and build all new cars. We've seen plenty of clever technical innovations already, and we'll see even more when the season is underway, with the engineers finding new ways to extract more speed from their new challenges. As we've already seen, the new cars look fantastic, but thanks to the new regs, they should also deliver even more sustainable and exciting racing in 2026 and beyond.