2026 F1 cars set to look much different from their 2022 counterparts

The 2026 F1 cars are set to look much different from their 2022 counterparts. In a recent interview with The Race, the FIA's Single Seater Technical Director, Nikolas Tombazis, revealed that one of the things on the agenda for the next generation of cars is weight reduction.

In the last 20 years, the F1 car has seen a 200kg jump in weight. Cars in 2000 used to weigh around 600 kg, while cars right now in 2022 have a weight limit of 798kg, which would reduce to 796kg next season.

This increase can be attributed to the increased safety measures of the car as well as the new hybrid system that is very big and heavy. Speaking to The Race, Tombazis said that it was realistic to make these cars lighter. He said:

"It is realistic to make them a bit lighter. Not a massive amount; we have to consider that the difference in weight since 2000, say 20 years ago or so, is about 200kg, which is a massive number. There's about 15-20kg because of more complex systems on the cars and there's about 30-35kg on car dimensions. So cars being much longer and wider, bigger tyres and so on."

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Where will the F1 cars lose weight?

According to Tombazis, one of the avenues of shedding the weight would be in reducing the car dimensions and the 2026 F1 cars would be shorter and probably narrower. He said:

"And we believe in the car dimensions there lies an opportunity. We would want 2026 cars to be quite a lot shorter and probably maybe a bit narrower as well and all of that is going to contain the weight increase."

There is, however, a complexity that has to be dealt with as the new PUs in 2026 are expected to provide 50% of the power and hence will have bigger batteries. Tombazis admitted that this could be an issue, but the net effect was expected to be lighter. He furthe explained:

"There is a battery increase because we are going more electrical which is adding a bit of weight. So the net effect I hope is going to be a bit lighter, but not a massive amount."

An attempt to reduce the weight and dimensions of the car is an impressive initiative taken by the FIA and it's safe to say that F1 cars have gotten a bit too big and certainly do impact racing on narrow street tracks.