Alonso advises his rivals to remain patient regarding their verdict of the 2026 F1 cars

Following negative comments from several drivers regarding the all-new 2026 F1 cars, two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso has recently urged his rivals to calm down as the real cars might turn out to be very different from the ones that teams are currently using in the simulator.

Although there are still ten races to complete this season, teams have already begun their preparing for Formula 1's technical overhaul which will lead to all-new cars in 2026. However, the prospect of new regulations is not welcomed equally by all.

Since the start of the current season, most of the teams have organized simulator test sessions for their drivers to get an initial feedback of the brand-new technology which could also provide the engineers with references and benchmarks they can orientate their development work around.

Following their first runs in the simulator, several drivers were left to share negative comments regarding the new cars, including Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon and Lance Stroll, with most of them claiming that the new formula could become more of a management exercise rather than pure racing.

However, two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso has recently urged his rivals to calm down as the real cars might turn out to be very different from the ones that teams are currently using in the simulator.

“I only did one day on the simulator and it was difficult to really take any conclusions of that so, I will wait a little bit longer or maybe even to test the real car.”

“Because sometimes you in the simulator you have a feeling and then on the real car you have one. So, yeah, it's less performance than this year.”

Reflecting on drivers' reactions to slower vehicles, Alonso pointed out the drivers usually dislike cars that are slower than the former machines, but he believes that his rivals will like the new regulations if they lead to fast cars.

“Every time a racing driver tests something that is slower, we'll never like it. But then we go in a rental car with 12 horsepower and we love it. So yeah If next year you are fast we will love the cars and hopefully Lance can enjoy. That would be good news.”

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

With the arrival of the new power units that will feature a fifty-fifty 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.