What to expect from Formula 1's new era

FORMULA 1 is taking a quantum leap this year with its stunning new cars, which have been created from the biggest-ever technical regulation change in the sport’s history – all in a bid for even-closer racing. 2025’s three-way title fight will be a tough one to beat, but F1 and its governing body, the FIA, along with the teams, have done their maths. 

To understand all the changes, enter Australian F1 journalist Stewart Bell, who has covered the sport for more than 20 years, with a detailed excerpt from his new book Formula One: The World’s Most Brutal Sport. The 320-page read aims to give you the full picture of what it’s like to be inside the sport, well beyond what you might have seen on Netflix’s blockbuster show Formula 1: Drive To Survive. 

The new era

Formula 1 transforms again in 2026, with a seismic shift in the form of all-new chassis and power-unit regulations that are likely to shake up the order; and new teams on the grid in the form of manufacturers Audi and Cadillac, both of which have been attracted to the series by its new technical direction. 

The regulations, which were unveiled by the FIA at the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix – with team development work begun from the start of 2025 – promise a bold step forward, with more agile cars that are 30 kilograms lighter and run on sustainable fuel. They’ll also feature active aerodynamics, and almost equalised combustion and electric grunt. 

On the aerodynamic side, the cars see a return to a much more familiar concept, with a ‘partially’ flat floor and lower-powered diffuser, ensuring that performance downforce is mostly generated from air rushing over the car, rather than below it, using ‘ground effect’, which the cars did from 2022-25. 

The previous era’s use of ground-effect aero was implemented in a bid to, for the first time, better enable two cars to race – with the regulations directing the leading car’s turbulent air skyward and not into the path of the pursuing car, which in the past had destroyed aero performance and a driver’s ability to close up and pass. 

But in clawing back performance through development and upgrades, the teams began to exploit the aero – and reintroduced turbulent air and outwash, in effect cancelling out the benefit from the regulations. It’s this area that the FIA has focused on to close the loopholes, and regenerate the better racing it had intended. 

“A significant part of these regulations has involved thinking about the fans,” said Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater director. “We believe we made a step towards closer racing in 2022, but there were also things that we got wrong and we’re trying to get it completely right now. 

“We believe the racing will be much more exciting and much closer between cars. We expect cars to be still very challenging to drive. There will be a bit less downforce on the cars, there will be a few more things to look after for the drivers. And hopefully that, together with the closer racing, will always keep it a drivers’ championship and a big challenge for these very intelligent and talented individuals.” 

Gone will be the DRS that the drivers used to open a slot in their rear wings along allocated straights for less drag and higher top speed, when they were within one second of the car in front at given DRS detection points that allowed them to use it later in the lap. Instead, they’ll have moveable aero front and rear – that will activate automatically on every straight for less drag, essentially an automatic, grid-wide DRS. 

“This comes with some strong benefits for energy consumption, but also having higher top speed allows you to recover more when you’re braking at the end of the straight,” said Jan Monchaux, the FIA’s single-seater technical director. “Since the effect of the rear wing opening on a straight is very large, the front wing flap will also be activated simultaneously to rebalance the car on the straights.”

With everyone having the same advantage, the new rules allow drivers a different, more futuristic tool to aid potential overtakes – an electrical energy boost. 

The new teams coming in 2026

German giant: Audi 

Audi may be a titan on the luxury automotive stage, with no shortage of achievements in racing to prove its heritage, including being second only to Porsche in terms of all-time Le Mans wins, 13–19, and two World Rally Championship manufacturers’ titles. But it will likely be uncompetitive on its F1 debut in 2026, and will need many years to be in a position to win races and become a title challenger – with its target 2030 – though there’s no guarantee. After all, Toyota spent USD$3 billion on its F1 program (2002–2009) for no wins and titles, and just 13 podiums, three poles and three fastest laps. 

On one hand, Audi has set itself the toughest challenge of all – as a works team, one that builds both chassis and power unit in-house. It’s excruciatingly complex, leagues tougher than just building a chassis and bolting a customer power unit and all the ancillaries (gearbox, suspension, etc) to it. Mercedes was the last works team to dominate with a record eight straight constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021, with Ferrari and Renault before that. All of which have deep, decades-long experience in the category, and on both sides of the chassis and power-unit divide. 

It has, however, given itself a head-start with a full takeover of the Swiss Sauber team that was the baseline for its German rival BMW’s own works F1 team from 2006 to 2009. That deal was reported to be worth €600 million, after which Audi sold a significant minority stake – reckoned to be 30 per cent – to the Qatar Investment Authority worth hundreds of millions of euros, ensuring it has the right design and production facilities to deliver an F1 chassis. 

On its driver line-up, Audi has decided against the traditional selection of two established pilots to push the team forward with deep expertise; instead, it’s gone with a mix of experience and youth – German F1 maestro Nico ‘The Hulk’ Hülkenberg, and Brazilian young gun Gabriel Bortoleto. 

Hülkenberg, a veteran of more than 250 starts in F1, was interested as soon as the project was announced in 2022. Not only was he being given the chance to be a German driver in a German team – a works squad, no less – he’d won Le Mans in 2015 for Porsche, Audi’s Volkswagen stablemate. 

It’s not the first time the Hulk has driven for a works operation, having led Renault for three seasons from 2017 to 2019; nor his first time at Sauber – having been at Hinwil in 2013, a single season he spent with the team in between Force India stints. He rejoined Sauber in 2025, a transition season for the then-Swiss team. 

Alongside Hülkenberg is Bortoleto, a promising young charger from Osasco, São Paulo: a half-hour drive from the legendary Brazilian circuit, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, better known as Interlagos. The Paulista earned his place on the grid with back-to-back F3 and F2 titles, beating Isack Hadjar – who was later promoted to Racing Bulls – in the latter season, and then proved his worth in the main game by dragging his Ferrari-powered Sauber C45 into the top 10 from mid-season, with his first points coming in Austria. 

American classic: Cadillac

Rival new entrant Cadillac, though, has taken a different approach to the task, in going in as a true start-up, the first in F1 for 10 years, since fellow American squad Haas joined in 2016 with its unparalleled partnership with Ferrari, and its now well-established approach to operation in buying everything that it doesn’t have to make. 

Cadillac’s F1 entrance is the phoenix from the ashes of the original rejected Andretti bid, one put together by Andretti Global co-founder and ex-F1 driver Michael Andretti, though he is no longer associated with the outfit. The morphing of that failed bid from an (eventual) General Motors-powered privateer squad into a GM-backed works squad changed everything, and opened the doors for the 11th outfit on the grid. Like Audi, Cadillac will have bases across borders – with its HQ at Silverstone Park, a stone’s throw from the home of British motorsport; and a Stateside power-unit facility near GM’s Charlotte Technical Center in North Carolina. 

As a true start-up, Cadillac has far more to do than Audi which has a baseline team on which to build – so it’s done itself some favours by deferring the implementation of its works power unit by three years until 2029, with Ferrari providing the baseline grunt until GM can bring in its own American-made powerplant. 

In getting up to speed, ex-Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon is its foundation team principal; while the squad has some heavy hitters on its technical team, with the project led by legendary F1 engineering mastermind Pat Symonds – who was part of the Benetton-turned-Renault team that took Fernando Alonso to two straight titles. He took an enforced break after the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix ‘Crashgate’ scandal, returning to lead the Williams team and then F1 itself as its chief technical officer. 

On the driver front, Cadillac goes forward with accelerated development potential, via its foundation line-up in ex-Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Pérez and ex-Mercedes stalwart Valtteri Bottas – both of whom were fully motivated to reignite their F1 careers, following a season spent out on the sport’s sidelines. 

It made sense for the Cadillac operation, with the pair having notched 500 combined F1 starts, and over 100 podiums. They bring intel from top teams that dominated the sport in different eras; and in being alongside top drivers at the peak of their powers, with Pérez an ex-teammate to Max Verstappen; and Bottas to Lewis Hamilton – both multiple World Champions who are in the conversation for Greatest of All Time (GOAT). 

Formula One: The World’s Most Brutal Sport by Stewart Bell, Penguin Random House is available now.

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