What’s behind Leclerc’s F1 2026 car complaints

Charles Leclerc has voiced fears over Formula 1’s new-for-2026 cars being “less enjoyable” to drive, and while senior team figures have played down his concerns, question marks remain over the new regulations.

The new machinery will have less downforce and more drag, making cars slower through the corners, but extra hybrid power from a near 50/50 split between internal combustion engine and electric energy will give the cars a vastly different power profile. Managing energy deployment from circuit to circuit will likely be a more significant factor, and opinions are divided over whether or not that 50/50 split needs to be watered down to avoid cars running out of energy too early on the straights. Active aerodynamics are being introduced to help mitigate any unwanted side-effects from the new power units.

Speaking at last week’s Austrian Grand Prix, Leclerc said he was not a fan of how the new cars for 2026 have to be driven. “Let’s say it’s not the most enjoyable race car I’ve driven so far but we are still in a moment where the project is relatively new,” the Ferrari driver said.

“My hope relies in the fact that it will evolve quite a bit in the next few months, but I think it’s no secret that I think the regulations for next year is going to be probably less enjoyable to drive. So yeah, I’m not a big fan of it for now, but there’s a challenge and I would like the challenge of maximising a very different car to what it is at the moment. But do I enjoy it? Probably not.”

World champion Max Verstappen previously also voiced his concerns over the new ruleset, having been unconvinced about the move towards active aerodynamics, but in Austria he refused to go into detail. “I’m in the middle. Maybe good, maybe bad – we’ll see. I’m very open-minded, honestly. When I sit in the car next year, we’ll figure it out. I’m not making the rules anyway. Even if I have my concerns, it’s not going to change anything.”

Williams team principal James Vowles, whose team has shifted full focus to the 2026 rules earlier than Ferrari, told Leclerc “it gets better” as development continues. It is understood neither Leclerc nor other F1 drivers have trialled car models in the simulator that will be close to what the final product will be when they turn up in Barcelona for testing at the end of January. Teams have also been known to deliberately set up their cars in such a way to unearth difficult driving characteristics as they prepare for the new rules era.

“I think it’s probably fair to say we’re advanced relative to other teams in terms of what we’re doing,” Vowles said. “And it gets better, is my comment to Charles. It just kind of gives us an indication of where they are at the moment in terms of their cycle. I actually don’t think the formula for next year is bad at all. I think it’s different.”

Were drivers always going to complain about adapting?

In general, it’s not unusual for drivers to face a reality check adapting to new regulations. There were also complaints when F1 last completely switched up its chassis rules in 2009 and most recently in 2022, when extremely stiff ground-effect cars were introduced. Change is hard, especially when cars will still be vastly overweight compared to what F1 drivers would like to see. Cars are going to be slightly shorter and narrower, and the minimum weight is going down from 800kg to 768kg, which is set to be a significant challenge and potential performance differentiator between teams. But it still won’t be enough for drivers craving much lighter, more nimble cars with pure combustion engines.

“If you ask a driver for a good car, give him the strongest, grippiest, least degrading tyres, 1,000 horsepower, naturally aspirated V12, and that’s what they’re going to love. And so we’re just in a different era now,” Mercedes chief Toto Wolff pointed out.

“Some cars have been good fun for the drivers to drive. Some tyres have been good fun, others not. So in a way, everybody will get used to it. I think the fans need to enjoy watching Formula 1. And F1 needs to stay true to itself, that it’s a high-performance sport.”

His Sauber counterpart Jonathan Wheatley added: “I think all of these concerns were raised at the start of this set of technical regulations, and as the energy management was a big story back then as well. But look at where we are now with the closest championship in the history of the sport. So, we have to look at the journey through this new set of technical regulations, and we have to make sure that at all times we’ve got the best interests of the sport at heart.”

But some power unit and overtaking concerns still remain

That doesn’t mean that Leclerc’s comment are entirely unjustified. There is still concern in some quarters over exactly how the new hybrid engines and active aerodynamics are going to work in unison. Because the front and rear wings will go into a low-drag setting automatically, cars will effectively have DRS all the time on the straights, and it remains to be seen whether or not the new electric energy-based “override mode” that is replacing it will be powerful enough to facilitate overtaking, which Vowles was not so sure about. “I think there’s work to be done, because I’m a little bit concerned about how we get the differentiation in terms of overtaking. There’s some real detail we’ve got to sort out,” he said.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Jayce Illman / Getty Images

McLaren’s technical director Neil Houldey added: “We know that there are still changes that need to be made to the regulations, especially around energy recovery, deployment, the straight line mode, the cornering mode, that actually we will be able to make as a group of teams and with the FIA that will help all of those issues.

“The car will be different to drive for sure. It’s got more power on corner exits and the way it reacts down the straights will be different, the way it goes into corners will be different. But I think it will still provide us with an interesting sport that we’re seeing now.

“The FIA has done a reasonably good job with the regulations. They’ve fixed the big things up front. There are still a few smaller mechanical points that we really do need to fix soon to enable us to develop in those areas. But the things that we’re talking about now are things that are actually more controls-based, things that we can modify later.”

Clearly there will not be any further changes to the physical hardware of the new power units at this late stage, but contested aspects like energy deployment limits are part of the sporting regulations and can be tuned ahead of 2026. Those sporting regulations also give the FIA the scope to adjust the electric output on a case by case basis if it foresees any issues on circuits with big power demands, like Monza, for example.

One senior team source likened those late deployment adjustments to the FIA tweaking the length and number of DRS zones over the years to ensure overtaking isn’t too difficult or too trivial at any given circuit.

But Wolff felt there was still enough time for teams to figure it out by themselves as 2025 development slows down and work on 2026 ramps up. “Looking at simulations of today, it’s very difficult to exactly know how it’s going to be next year,” he said. “It’s super-challenging new regulations in making those energy levels last throughout the lap. On some of the tracks, clearly at the moment, that is still challenging.

“But the pace of innovation is huge, and that’s always been the case in Formula 1. And I believe that we’re on the right trajectory.”