There are moments when the namesake of Formula 1 comes into stark focus. Beholding everything that goes into stealing a second on track – from rear wing design to tire management and pit lane communication, to how late a driver can push themselves to brake – reminds us that F1 is an all-encompassing search for elusive perfection. Mathematical precision clashes with chaotic unpredictability; advanced technologies coincide with human error and ingenuity; a single race sprawls across time and space towards a globe-spanning infrastructure of factories, headquarters, and even the computer code of race simulators.
2026 is one of these moments: the formula is being rewritten. Every five years or so, the sport’s governing authority, the FIA, implements major new regulations intended to improve driver safety, make racing more exciting, and shake up the leaderboard by providing opportunities to innovate. (See: the rotating rear wing Ferrari quietly unveiled during pre-season testing last weekend, which is already making fans giddy.) These changes typically focus on either the power unit or aerodynamics, but this year, teams are contending with major updates to both simultaneously – perhaps the biggest regulations overhaul in F1 history. Combine this with Cadillac joining the grid, Audi making their entry by integrating Kick Sauber into their new works team, new power unit manufacturers and drivers, and all signs point towards a thrillingly unpredictable year ahead for Formula 1.
“I’m very much enjoying feeling a new regulation, feeling what the car is doing underneath me,” says Ollie Bearman. The 20-year-old had a stellar 2025 rookie season with Haas, and the American team are showing impressive reliability and pace in pre-season testing. “I think we have a great opportunity in 2026.”
There’s a bit of jargon at play with the new regs – the technical rabbit holes, if you’re into that, are endlessly fascinating – but Bearman wants to reassure fans that if they’re feeling overwhelmed, they’re “not alone”. “Even we’re struggling to understand what everything means,” he says humbly, before running down the key updates. What might Audi driver and paddock veteran Nico Hülkenberg have to say to fans who may be feeling lost? “That’s not my job. Go to F1 dot com, and it’s all laid out there perfectly for them,” he says. Take it as a well-deserved shoutout to the folks writing wonderfully accessible technical breakdowns on the Formula 1 website.
Bearman is happy to talk it all through. As mentioned, one area seeing a big update is the power unit. The topline change is that where previously, “80% of the power came from the [combustion] engine and 20% from the battery, now it’s 50-50,” he says. The engine will be combusting new ‘Advanced Sustainable Fuels’ made from things like carbon capture and municipal waste, while the battery’s been redesigned. For the past eighteen years, F1 hybrid power units recharged with a heat recovery system called the MGU-H, which was heavy, expensive, and lacked road relevance (transferable applications for regular cars). So while the MGU-H has been thrown out, the kinetic recovery system, the MGU-K, is all-important. This system recharges through braking and ‘lifting and coasting’: lifting off the throttle at the end of straights to let the car slide into the braking zone.
Speaking to incoming rookie Arvid Lindblad ahead of his debut with Racing Bulls, the battery’s increased importance makes things very different behind the wheel. “At the moment, the driver has a bigger influence: how you do all your inputs can have a big impact on how much performance you get from the engines,” he says. Hülkenberg agrees. “It’s a lot more about energy efficiency this year. We’re going to overtake each other by using more energy, but you need to have the energy available to spend it.”
In theory, this makes for more unpredictable racing since drivers will not always be able to drive flat out, and must carefully manage the battery to overtake: especially as we’re saying goodbye to DRS, the rear wing mechanism that’s aided overtaking since 2011. “Now we have something called Overtake Mode,” Bearman explains. “You’re able to use more battery power on a lap where you’re close to the car in front. The rear wing will not open like before, but it gives you more power,” he says. “Honestly, I think it’s going to make racing very interesting.” Yet Hülkenberg, ever-cool, shrugs off the question of how this changes strategy. “Over one lap, you never really strategise,” he says. “You just go as fast as you can.”
As the FIA had hoped, the new regs have enticed new engine manufacturers. A more road relevant concept has solidified a new partnership between Red Bull and Ford, retained Honda’s interest in powering Aston Martin (though things look dire for them following pre-season testing), and attracted Audi to become F1’s newest power unit manufacturer. “Being German, and Audi being a cool German brand, it does feel extra special,” says Hülkenberg. “But we’re at the beginning of Audi’s time in Formula 1, and we know we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
To Lindblad, the aerodynamics update feels most novel. “The biggest thing is there’s a lot less grip: the car has less downforce,” he says. Downforce – the vertically acting force that presses a car to the track, suctioning it down for more grip – was the name of the game in 2022-2025’s ‘ground effect’ era, where a key aero component was the tunnels channeling rapid airflow through the cars’ underfloors; it was also the era where Red Bull produced the most dominant car in F1 history. But the new, flatter floors eliminate ground effect, reducing downforce. “Last year’s minimum downforce will be like this year’s maximum downforce,” says Bearman.
Might younger drivers have an advantage in 2026, not having to unlearn quite as much? Starting from scratch with a new car is familiar to Bearman. “I’ve been changing categories every year since F4, so it’s a bit less crazy to me that we’re changing the regulations so much. I think that gives a small advantage, but there’s a lot of things that remain the same: the weekend format, the tire allocation,” he says. “I would still prefer to have more experience than less.” Lindblad agrees that rookie advantage isn’t clear-cut: “You could argue maybe, but it’s all very speculative.”
Seasoned driver Hülkenberg won’t rest on his laurels. “Most of the younger kids have raced all their lives, and it’s more or less the same physics. Experience doesn’t guarantee any set in stone advantages. You could also think if you have experience, you don’t have to work as hard, but that can bite you in the ass pretty quickly,” he says, smiling.
Will the upcoming season prove to be a real shakeup? Not everyone is as excited as Bearman, or as measured as Hülkenberg. At the end of testing last weekend, former champions were in a huff about energy management demands. Fernando Alonso complained that he had to go so slowly round corners that his team’s “chef could drive the car”; Max Verstappen disparaged the new cars as “Formula E on steroids”; and in the space of a week, championship holder Lando Norris pivoted from telling press the cars are “fun” to saying they’re “certainly not the purest form of racing”. But the forecast looks promising for a leaderboard contest: particularly in the midfield, where there’s set to be a battle between Haas, Alpine, and Racing Bulls.
Hülkenberg, who has seen regulations come and go across 14 years in F1, seems unfazed. “It’s just a learning curve. In the history of F1, every four to six years there’s regulation changes. I like these new situations; it’s a challenge,” he says. “We just need to be patient, and in a few weeks’ time, we’ll get some answers.”
Though explosive quotes have been making headlines, Bearman seems to feel that “general [driver] feedback has been positive”. “It’s a good reminder to stay open-minded, and change is not necessarily a bad thing,” he says. The chaos might very well produce some brilliant, unexpected racing, and who wants to watch a predictable season? Grab your popcorn for Melbourne.
