Aston Martin explains how the 2026 rules will change the aerodynamics

Ahead of the arrival of the all-new technical regulation in 2026, Aston Martin's Executive Director Bob Bell has explained how the new rules will impact the aerodynamic characteristic of the current F1 cars.

While the discussions about the all-new 2026 technical regulation usually focus on the new power units, there will be signicifant changes to aerodynamic configuration of the F1 cars as well.

With the arrival of the new power units that will features a fifty-fitty ratio between the electric components and the internal combustion engine, the sport will introduce a host of aerodynamic changes. With these tweaks, the target is to make the cars more efficient and ensure they are able to perform similar lap-times to what we see now.

The primary tool to achieve this is 'active' aerodynamics. Previously banned – or, at least, heavily proscribed – in F1, it will allow the front and rear wings to be adjusted from corners to straights: opening to configure the car for less drag in a straight line, closing into the corners to provide more aerodynamic grip.

This aerodynamic reboot also serves as an opportunity to refine existing regulations. For 2026, the focus has been on reinforcing some of the concepts introduced in 2022 to promote better racing while getting rid of others that led to the cars being very uncomfortable to drive, most notably the 'porpoising' effect.

This effect is when cars aggressively bounce up and down through the range of their suspension travel, when airflow through contoured Venturi tunnels under the car first sucks them towards the track, and then stalls when the cars ground, in a process that repeats, like a porpoise skipping across the waves.

The new regulations remove the 'ground-effect' generating tunnels and return F1 cars to having flat undersides before a step into a conventional downforce-generating diffuser beneath the rear end.

Speaking of the aerodynamic changes to the 2026 F1 cars, Aston Martin's Executive Director Bob Bell stated: "The current aerodynamic regulations, introduced in 2022, have been reasonably successful in improving overtaking, but have made the cars very sensitive to setup and fairly minor aerodynamic changes – one consequence of which has been the 'porpoising' that we’ve seen. 2026 is an opportunity to tackle some of those issues.

"The idea was to conceive a geometry that still maintained this characteristic that made it easier for cars to follow one another but also perhaps desensitise them, make them less fickle.

"We're returning to something more akin to the pre-2022 regulations, with a flat underside of the car and a straight kick-up at the back. There’s more to it than that, of course, but that’s the main difference, ending the era of these fully contoured ground-effect cars.

"The FIA released the final version of the aerodynamic regulations in December. It also provided an initial set of geometry – essentially its view of what the aerodynamic bodywork would look like – as the starting point for our development, and from 2 January we were allowed to start working in the wind tunnel and CFD on those configurations.

In addition to the tweaks to the floor, the cars will be smaller, with the maximum wheelbase reducing by 200mm to 3400mm and the width by 100mm to 1900mm. Tyres will be smaller too: the 18-inch wheel size will remain, but the width of the tyres will reduce by 25mm at the front and 30mm at the rear to 280mm and 375mm, respectively.

"The new regulations have mandated stronger cars with more stringent homologation tests – but also lighter cars with a lower minimum weight. These two things are not usually complementary, and this adds to the challenge for 2026: we've got to build a stronger and lighter car.

"Safety in F1 is pretty good, but it can always be better. Any improvements we can make in this area are welcome and consequently, the whole chassis is going to be a lot stronger than it currently is.

"The challenge is to find and remove 30kg from the existing car. One thing that's helping us is that the rules relating to materials are being relaxed in certain areas, and we’ll be allowed to use some exotic materials that were previously banned, such as various titanium and aluminium alloys produced via 3D printing," concluded Bell.