What the 2026 cars will demand from drivers – and what fans can expect to see
Matt Harman and Angelos Tsiaparas offer an insight into what racing might look like in 2026
Published
10 FEB 2026
Est. reading time
4 min
The 2026 regulation reset represents one of the most significant shifts in Formula 1’s modern era, redefining not just car design but the way performance is extracted on track. For Atlassian Williams F1 Team Technical Director Matt Harman and Chief Engineer Angelos Tsiaparas, those changes are set to alter the very rhythm of racing.
One of the first things to understand is that not every team will arrive at the same driving “feel”.
“This is pretty much down to a team’s choice in how they approach the regulations,” Angelos explains. “Fundamental layout, early architectural decisions, aero balance, weight distribution – all of that can push you towards mechanical grip and low-speed performance, or more aerodynamic grip.”
In other words, just as in previous regulation resets, the new-for-2026 cars won’t all behave the same. Some may look stronger in slower corners, others at high speed, depending on how teams set out their early design decisions.
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But where things really start to change, especially for the drivers, is the power unit.
“The big thing is the PU and how drivers need to adapt to maximise it,” says Angelos. “You might even make fundamental mechanical design choices just to unlock the power unit’s potential.”
That adaptation shows up most clearly in how energy is recovered and deployed over a lap. Energy recovery will be one of the defining challenges and big talking points of the 2026 cars.
To maximise recovery, drivers may need to do things that currently feel very unnatural.
“One of the things you might see is drivers pulling much lower gears than you’ve ever seen before,” Matt explains. “Right now, a driver would very rarely pull first gear. In 2026, you may see that.”
“Running those lower gears creates stability challenges,” Matt says. “So then you’re into how you control the power unit, how you control rear stability, and what systems you use to manage that. It’s a very specific characteristic of this [generation of] car, and it will require drivers to adapt their style.”
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Crucially, energy recovery won’t just happen under braking.
“Not all of it,” Matt confirms. “We want to promote maximum energy recovery during the lap in every way we can.”
That includes harvesting energy even when the car is running at high speed through corners. Angelos likens it to a hybrid road car.
“You don’t need to press the brake pedal to harvest energy,” he explains. “At any point, you can turn the electric motor into harvesting mode and effectively burn fuel to create electricity. That already exists today, but because the electrical element in 2026 is almost three times more powerful, these strategies become much more important.”
From a performance point of view, there’s unlikely to be a silver bullet early in the rules cycle.
“The key performance driver will depend on how each subsystem performs,” Matt says. “If you’ve got a very advanced power unit and chassis integration, you’ll be at one end of the optimisation. If something is weaker, you may have to run the car in a very different way.”
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That variation could make the early part of the 2026 season fascinating, with different teams leaning into different strengths as they learn more about their cars, and each other.
For fans watching trackside or on TV, the changes should be noticeable.
“There may be slightly different speed profiles on the straights,” Matt says, “as teams optimise how they deploy and manage energy.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how different drivers take different corners,” he adds. “How they adapt through the race, and how multiple laps come together.”
Energy use won’t just be about a single moment anymore. Instead, races could unfold over longer strategic horizons.
“If you expend all your energy for an overtake on one lap,” Matt explains, “it’s highly likely you’ll be vulnerable on the exit later. So it’s not just ‘overtake and go’. It could be an overtake, then a counter-overtake.”
That multi-lap thinking is a big shift.
“You’re almost planning things in 10-lap stints,” he says. “That’s going to be really interesting for teams and drivers, because the driver’s decisions will directly shape how their race plays out.”
Angelos believes this shift could put drivers more firmly back at the centre of the show.
“In the last few years, it was all about tyre management,” he says. “Now there’s another layer of skill that becomes important. How drivers approach this will be fascinating.”
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