The FIA released the first images of its take on the 2026 regulations today
Fernando Alonso says that trimming 30kgs from the 2026 Formula 1 cars currently looks “impossible” – however he expects the teams will be able to manage it by the time the new designs actually race.
As part of the package the minimum weight limit will be trimmed from the current 798kgs to 768kgs.
While the cars will also be shorter and narrower Alonso believes that battery weight will be major factor, and make it harder for teams to slim their cars down.
“From a driver point of view, what we want is just close competition, multiple race winners, opportunities for everyone,” he said when asked by this writer about the 2026 regulations.
“We don’t want to have domination of three, four years, where only one team, one driver or two drivers can win. So hopefully 2026 can kind of help on that, which is the only thing that F1 is missing. The rest is great.”
Regarding the active aero package intended to improve speed on the straight he said: “It looks complicated. At the end of the day, the fans are the ones that need to say their point of view, I think, for us it is just extra maybe work on the steering wheel or different buttons to press.
“Definitely the technology and complexity of the cars are quite high at the moment. It doesn’t look that it will be less in 2026. Also the engines, obviously, they are very ambitious in terms of targets.
“And maybe some of these aero devices and things that you need to change on the straights and things like that are just to compensate the maybe too ambitious power unit targets.”
Alonso made it clear that making the weight limit will be a challenge for the teams.
“I think it is impossible probably to achieve 30 kilos already,” he said. “The thing is that if you put the power unit being 50% electric, and you need the batteries to support that, the cars and the tyres I think are heavier as well. Cars will just increase 20 or 30 kilos because of the power unit.
“And then you want to reduce 30, you need to drop 60 kilos of the current car, which is it seems at the moment probably to the teams an impossible target.
“They have two years to achieve that target, and as always in F1, what is impossible in 2024 will become reality in 2026, because there are very clever people in the teams. But I think all is a consequence of something else that is in the car.”
Alonso says he welcomes the “manual override mode” that in effect replaces DRS as a way to create overtaking opportunities, and gives the drivers an extra took with which to play.
“It was the same before where we had the KERS active for six seconds, and you had to choose where in the corners and in the lap you use those six seconds, and sometimes you used in different places than the car in front and vice versa, and created some overtaking opportunities.
“So I tend to agree with having kind of freedom to the drivers to use you the power here or there, and create alternative strategies, which now we are all deploying in the same places, at the same time, and it’s a little bit more routine.”
Overall Alonso believes that teams should have more freedom.
“I think it should be more simple,” he said. “It should be maybe more just pure racing and just more down to the drivers and to the team and the specific setup at the specific racetrack, while remembering in the past more freedom into the design of the cars – some F1 cars had six wheels, just to give an example. And in some tracks maybe benefits you in some others you know you will get hurt.
“Same when we had Michelin and Bridgestone tyres in 2005. Maybe a difficult season for Bridgestone if Michelins were better, maybe rain here in Montreal and the Intermediate tyres are great for Bridgestone, and all the Bridgestone cars, they can win the race, or be on the podium.
“So I like that kind of freedom that you can choose something. And it’s not just dictated everything by the regulations. But this is a personal point of view, and everyone will have theirs, and I’m happy, I will adapt.
“And the most important thing is that you have the fastest car. And that’s what we need to work on.”
Adam Cooper F1 