For more than 75 years, Formula 1 has built its reputation on providing some of the most exciting and fastest racing in all of motorsport. But for 2026, things are slowing down a little bit. Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, told reporters at preseason testing in Bahrain last week that the new cars felt slower than those used in Formula 2, F1's primary junior category.

Although Hamilton was factually incorrect, given his fastest time in Bahrain was more than 10 seconds quicker than last year's F2 pole time at the same track, it did illustrate the change in feeling behind the wheel. The fastest time in the Bahrain test was set by Kimi Antonelli, yet this was more than four seconds slower than the best lap in F1 testing last year, pointing to the drop in pace.

It is a consequence of a shift in aerodynamic philosophy as part of a total overhaul of F1's car designs for 2026, as well as how the engines are delivering power. Not only do the cars feel different to the drivers because of a combination of the two elements, but there are also some notable visible changes to the cars' aero shapes that fans will spot in 2026, including movable front and rear wings.

How F1 has changed its aerodynamic philosophy

In the last generation of cars used from 2022 to 2025, the primary way they generated downforce — aerodynamic grip keeping the cars on the track — was through ground effect, via a series of complex, intricate tunnels running on the floor underneath the car that generated downforce by essentially sucking the cars to the ground. It became advantageous to run the cars as close to the surface as possible to generate maximum downforce.

Now, F1 has ditched ground effect as the main downforce generator as part of its regulation overhaul, much of which was centered on making the cars more agile. The car weight and dimensions were reduced, which also means the aerodynamic loads being put on the cars had to be brought in line. The FIA — F1's governing body, which oversees technical matters — has estimated a drop in downforce of between 20 and 25 percent on the cars from 2025 to 2026.

That means the cars will be slower in some corners — particularly high-speed ones where ground effect is especially powerful. But this means some corners, such as Eau Rouge and Raidillon at Spa, or 130R at Suzuka, may now become more challenging for drivers. "We should not forget that some (turns) were previously almost straight because they were flat out," Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA's single seater director and a key architect in the new rules, said in a recent YouTube video. "There was no skill. (If the) corner was a kink, (it) now becomes a corner."

In addition to the downforce cuts, and in a bid to reduce aero drag that also makes it harder to follow and overtake a car ahead, a number of the aerodynamic surfaces have also changed shape for this year. The front wing is narrower and has been simplified, as has the rear wing. The 'beam wing' that was part of the rear wing structure last year has been removed, the rear-wing endplates have been simplified, and the wheel fairings from the previous cars were also ditched.

How active aerodynamics work

Anyone who saw clips of the new F1 cars from the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain this year will have noticed another major change on the front and rear wings: the expanded use of active aerodynamics, previously used in the Drag Reduction System rear wing opening. Active aero on the 2026 cars works by opening or lowering flaps in the wings to help improve straight-line speed and efficiency.

This is an important part of the overhauled regulations given the increase in electrical energy from the engines and the requirement for drivers to carefully manage how much they use the battery. By shedding drag for every straight, less energy is required to rapidly hit top speeds.

Seeing the rear wing open is nothing new for F1, given it operated that way when DRS was active from 2011 until last year. But while that was an overtaking aid, activated when within one second of the car ahead, the active aerodynamics system is not. Instead, it will be available to all drivers at the parts of the track where 'Straight Mode' is activated, before returning to 'Corner Mode' (where the flaps shut or rise and the wings return to normal shapes) to go through the turns.

The active aero settings will now become a part of how a team sets up a car for a race weekend, retaining the typical engineering trade-off between maximizing downforce while minimizing drag. The amount the wings open will vary from track to track, but circuits with a big variation of these demands, such as Spa in Belgium, could become tricky. "Some circuits will have a big portion of them under Straight Mode," said Matt Harman, the Williams technical director. "So you need to be careful. If you go too greedy with the minimization of drag, that's not necessarily the optimum solution for the global performance."

When the front and rear wings pop open, it creates a different sensation for the drivers in the car that also needs to be considered, as the cars will rise and fall on their suspension settings as a result. "It may change ride heights, it may change inputs into the tires," said Angelos Tsiaparas, chief engineer at Williams. "There are a few knock-ons that people need to keep in mind."

Why the cars feel so different to drive

F1 drivers have been adjusting to the drop in downforce through preseason testing — rewiring their brains for how to approach certain corners and getting used to the reduced grip levels. Between the reduced weight and the lower aerodynamic loads, the cars now feel much lighter.

Mercedes driver George Russell found the adjustment to the reduced downforce "pretty easy" and found the new cars much easier to catch when battling understeer or oversteer. "You push the cars to the limit and it still feels really quick," Russell said. "You still feel like you're on the edge of the grip. It's only when you look back at the (speed) overlays of last year and you realize (the 2025 cars were) 30-40 km/h faster in some high-speed corners. But it didn't really give us a lot. You always drive to that limit of the car, so if it helps racing and following closer, (with) hopefully less tire overheating when you're going around the high-speed corners slower, I don't think it's a bad thing."

Liam Lawson, who drives for Racing Bulls and is going into his second full F1 season, highlighted the loss in downforce as being an even bigger adjustment to make compared to using the complex energy management systems. He said his car was "pretty tough to drive," as it was sliding more due to the reduced downforce, which risked increasing tire degradation — when the tires fall apart due to excess sliding, especially in hot temperatures. "Yes, you're a lot busier (in the car), but that stuff, as we spend more time driving, it will start to come naturally," said Lawson. "But right now, it's mainly just the downforce that's making it a lot harder to drive."

The sliding and reduced grip through the corners that Lawson found difficult was actually talked up by some of the other drivers, who enjoyed the fresh approach. Hamilton said his Ferrari was "easier to catch" and "quite fun, like rallying a lot." Dealing with lighter, less predictable cars in the corners was a skill that Jan Monchaux, the FIA's single-seater technical director, said would "allow the very good drivers to shine" in F1. "Driving a car with less aero load is trickier, and you are more prone to lock tires in braking," Monchaux said. "There are a lot of things that get trickier, and that's where a top driver among the 22 Formula 1 drivers may be able to shine more."

Does it matter if the cars are slower?

A four-second drop in lap times year on year may sound significant, but it is unlikely to remain quite that dramatic. The Bahrain test was the first public running for the 2026 cars, meaning teams are likely to still have more performance in hand going into the final preseason test and the racing championship. The gap to the 2025 lap times, in reality, may be smaller.

It is also a drop in pace in line with the last regulation change. From 2021 to 2022, when F1 introduced the ground effect cars, lap times fell by almost three seconds when comparing the best Bahrain test time to the previous year's pole lap. Through the regulation cycle from 2022 to 2025, that gap narrowed significantly as teams developed their cars and clawed back the lost downforce. By last year's race in Bahrain, the gap had dropped to less than a second to the 2021 pole lap, and record times were set at tracks such as Monza in 2025. That same process is already underway for the teams, chasing back the performance they have lost over the winter and finding new ways to exploit the aerodynamic rules. Come the end of this rule set, scheduled for 2030, the gap will likely shrink again.

"We should be careful drawing parallels to 2025, which was the last year of a cycle that was relatively stable, and every year teams are adding performance," said Monchaux. Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto, who is entering his second F1 season in 2026, said that the outright speed was not what made a car fun to drive or not. "Everyone always thinks that because you have faster cars, it's always more enjoyable," said Bortoleto. "But sometimes it's also enjoyable to have a car that has less grip. You play more with it."

However, four-time world champion Max Verstappen has already strongly expressed his distaste for how the new cars feel for a driver, with how the different aero and engine requirements combine overall. Verstappen called the cars "anti-racing" and "not a lot of fun." The topic is set to rumble on as F1's new era gets going.