How a Formula 1 car works
Created with AI based on the sources linked below
The 2026 season brought Formula 1’s biggest technical overhaul in years. The cars are shorter, narrower and lighter, the power unit draws around half of its output from the battery, and the wings flatten themselves on the straights. This page walks through the car assembly by assembly: what is inside a current Formula 1 car and how the parts work together.
Key figures under the 2026 rules
| Component | 2026 rule | Up to 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | 1.6 l, 90° V6, turbocharged | unchanged |
| Combustion engine output | around 400 kW | around 550–560 kW |
| Electric motor output (MGU-K) | 350 kW maximum | 120 kW |
| MGU-K energy recovered per lap | up to 8.5 MJ | 2 MJ (deployment up to 4 MJ) |
| MGU-H | removed | fitted |
| Minimum power unit mass | 185 kg | – |
| Gearbox | 8 forward gears | 8 forward gears |
| Wheelbase | 3400 mm maximum | 3600 mm maximum |
| Width | 1900 mm maximum | 2000 mm maximum |
| Minimum car weight | 724 kg plus tyres (768 kg) | 800 kg |
| Wheels | 18 inch | 18 inch |
| Wings | movable front and rear wings | DRS on the rear wing only |
Power unit: half combustion, half electric
At its core is still a 1.6-litre turbocharged V6. The six cylinders sit at a 90-degree angle, each has two intake and two exhaust valves, and the compression ratio may not exceed 16.0. What has changed is the balance: the combustion engine now delivers only around 400 kW, while the electric motor may add up to 350 kW – almost three times as much as before. Roughly half of the peak output therefore comes from the battery.
MGU-K: This motor-generator unit on the crankshaft works both ways. Under braking it turns kinetic energy into electricity; under acceleration it helps drive the car. It may recover up to 8.5 megajoules per lap, more than four times the 2 MJ allowed until 2025; at some circuits the FIA can lower the limit to 7 MJ. Its torque is capped at 500 Nm, and at a standing start it may only assist once the car has reached 50 km/h.
Battery (energy store): It buffers energy between braking and accelerating. On track the state of charge may vary by no more than 4 MJ, so there is a limit to how much energy can be saved up at once. When to deploy it is one of the key strategic questions in a race.
Power curve: To stop the battery being drained on long straights, the permitted electric power falls with speed. From about 290 km/h it is reduced step by step and reaches zero at 345 km/h. In Overtake Mode the electric motor may keep helping up to 355 km/h.
No more MGU-H: The second generator on the turbocharger, which turned exhaust energy into electricity until 2025, is gone. It was considered expensive and of little use for road cars. With the new rules, Audi among others has joined as an engine manufacturer.
Fuel: The cars run on advanced sustainable fuel, made for example from captured carbon, municipal waste or non-food biomass. Only an additive package of at most 1 per cent of the blend may come from non-sustainable sources. The limit is no longer on fuel quantity per hour but on energy: no more than 3,000 MJ per hour.
Gearbox
Behind the engine sits the gearbox, with exactly eight forward gears and a reverse gear. Continuously variable transmissions are banned and the gear pairs must be made of steel. Drivers shift themselves, usually with paddles behind the steering wheel – automatic gear changes count as a driver aid and are not allowed. An upshift may take no more than 200 milliseconds, a downshift no more than 300 milliseconds.
Chassis and monocoque
The monocoque, called the “survival cell” in the rules, is a carbon-fibre composite shell. The driver sits inside it, with the fuel tank and power unit behind. The crash tests are tougher for 2026: the front impact structure now gives way in two stages, so the nose is less likely to come off in a first impact and still protects the driver in a second one. Protection against parts intruding from the side has also been strengthened.
Halo and other safety features
Above the cockpit sits the halo, a hoop that protects the driver’s head from debris and in a rollover. It is built to FIA standard 8869-2018 by an FIA-approved manufacturer. The roll hoop behind the driver’s head must withstand a load of 172 kilonewtons in the test. New lateral safety lights show the state of the hybrid system. And a strapped-in driver must be able to remove the steering wheel and get out of the car within seven seconds.
Aerodynamics: active wings instead of DRS
The most visible change is the movable wings. Front and rear wings have two fixed positions:
- Corner Mode: the default setting with steep flaps and plenty of downforce for the corners.
- Straight Mode: the flaps flatten, drag falls and the car gets faster on the straight.
Switching between the two may take no more than 400 milliseconds. If the system fails, the flaps return to Corner Mode automatically. Unlike DRS, Straight Mode is available to every driver on every lap in the designated zones. Early announcements called the two settings Z-mode and X-mode.
For overtaking there is Overtake Mode instead: a driver who is less than one second behind the car ahead at the detection point may harvest and deploy an extra 0.5 MJ of electrical energy on that lap, and the electric motor keeps helping up to 355 km/h instead of 345 km/h.
The rest of the aerodynamics is simpler too: the wings have fewer elements, the beam wing below the rear wing and the bodywork over the front wheels are gone, and the front wing is narrower. The FIA’s targets are around 30 per cent less downforce and around 55 per cent less drag.
Floor and diffuser
Since 2022 the cars had generated much of their downforce with Venturi tunnels under the floor – the so-called ground effect. That principle is scaled back considerably in 2026. The floor is flatter and narrower, while the diffuser at the rear has larger openings. The cars must run higher off the ground, making them less sensitive to ride height and less prone to bottoming out. The aim is for a following car to lose less downforce and be able to stay closer.
Dimensions and weight
The wheelbase is limited to 3400 mm – 200 mm less than before. Apart from the wheels, no part of the car may be more than 950 mm from the centreline, which brings the width down to 1900 mm. The minimum weight is 724 kg plus the average tyre mass measured by the tyre supplier, or 726 kg plus tyres in qualifying and sprint qualifying. When the rules were unveiled this was communicated as 768 kg including tyres – around 30 kg less than in 2025.
Tyres
Pirelli remains the single tyre supplier, with 18-inch rims. The tyres are narrower, though: 25 mm at the front and 30 mm at the rear. That saves weight and drag. Compounds and the tyre rules in the race are explained on our rules page.
Brakes: brake-by-wire at the rear
At the front the car brakes conventionally with hydraulics. At the rear an electronic system, known as brake-by-wire, controls the brake pressure: because the MGU-K does a large share of the slowing down, the electronics split the braking work between the generator and the brake discs. The pressure may not exceed 1.2 times what the driver generates through the pedal, and if the system fails the driver still brakes the rear axle purely hydraulically.
Steering wheel
The steering wheel is the command centre. Using buttons and rotary switches, the driver controls Straight Mode, Overtake Mode and Boost, which releases extra battery power anywhere on the lap as long as there is enough energy. On top of that come settings for energy recovery, brake balance and the radio to the race engineer. It comes off with one movement – the rules require drivers to remove it and climb out within seven seconds and put it back within twelve seconds in total.
How the teams interpret the rules
The regulations set the limits; the teams develop their own solutions. What each team’s 2026 car looks like and what sets it apart can be found on the team pages.