According to Adrian Newey, whoever manages to build a lightweight car for the new Formula 1 regulations coming into force in 2026 will have a good chance of competing at the front of the field
In 2026, Formula 1 cars will be lighter again – at least on paper. The minimum weight, which is currently 800 kilograms, will drop to 768 kilograms next year. The question is, however, whether the teams will even be able to achieve this.
Adrian Newey, at least, has his doubts. “I think we all know how sensitive Formula 1 cars are to weight, and at the beginning of 2022 there were several cars that were overweight, including the Red Bull,” he recalls.
“This time it’s an even bigger challenge,” he explains with regard to 2026, because: “The weight limit has been reduced, but the cars are naturally heavier due to the size of the battery.”
So, although the cars themselves will be slightly smaller again in 2026, the increase in the proportion of electric power in the drive means that the cars will need a larger and therefore heavier battery. “So I think that any team that stays within the weight limit will do very well,” says Newey.
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu also explains in this context that “at the moment” it looks as if some cars will still be significantly above the weight limit at the beginning of 2026 than was the case at the start of the 2022 rule change.
Every gram costs valuable lap time
And even back then, some of the cars were already significantly too heavy. At the beginning of 2022, for example, Helmut Marko admitted that the Red Bull RB18, which went on to win both world titles at the end of the year, was still around ten kilograms too heavy at that point.
At the time, Marko also explained that these ten kilos meant a handicap of around three to four tenths of a second per lap on the stopwatch. This means that the weight of the cars could once again play a decisive role at the start of the 2026 season.
Christian Horner was already annoyed a few weeks ago that the new weight limit for 2026 had been “plucked out of thin air.” “We have engines that are significantly heavier—and a weight limit that has been lowered,” he said, pointing out the contradiction.
“This will be an enormous challenge for every team. Weight savings cost an insane amount of money,” said the Red Bull team boss. However, this investment could pay off next year, at least at the start of the season.
Because at the beginning of the year, it may not be the team with the most sophisticated concept that is ahead, but the one with the lightest car.
