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2026 Formula One World Championship

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The 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship is a planned motor racing championship for Formula One cars which will be the 77th running of the Formula One World Championship. It is recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship will be contested over several Grands Prix held around the world. Drivers and teams are scheduled to compete for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion respectively.

The 2026 season will feature a major set of regulation changes with a revised power unit configuration and new active aerodynamics. Two new power unit manufacturers will enter the sport and one will leave: Ford will return to the sport for the first time since 2004, supporting Red Bull Powertrains in supplying Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, while Audi, who acquired Sauber in 2024, will enter as a works team. Renault will leave the sport, making it the first time that the manufacturer will not compete with any sort of Renault-licensed engine since the 1988 season. Cadillac will become the eleventh team to join the series.

Entries

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The following constructors and drivers are under contract to compete in the 2026 World Championship. All teams are due to compete with tyres supplied by Pirelli.[1] Each team is required to enter at least two drivers, one for each of the two mandatory cars.[2]

Teams and drivers that are contracted to compete in the 2026 World Championship
Entrant Constructor Power unit Race drivers
No. Driver name
France BWT Alpine F1 Team[3] Alpine-Mercedes Mercedes[4][5] 10 France Pierre Gasly[6]
TBC TBA
United Kingdom Aston Martin Aramco Honda[7] Aston Martin Aramco-Honda Honda[8] 14 Spain Fernando Alonso[9]
18 Canada Lance Stroll[10]
Germany Audi F1 Team[11][12] Audi Audi[11] 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg[13]
TBC Brazil Gabriel Bortoleto[14]
United States Cadillac Formula 1 Team[15][16] Cadillac-TBA TBA TBC TBA
TBC TBA
Italy Scuderia Ferrari HP[17] Ferrari Ferrari[18] 16 Monaco Charles Leclerc[19]
44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton[20]
United States MoneyGram Haas F1 Team[21] Haas-Ferrari Ferrari[22][23] 31 France Esteban Ocon[24]
87 United Kingdom Oliver Bearman[25]
United Kingdom McLaren Formula 1 Team McLaren-Mercedes Mercedes[26] 4 United Kingdom Lando Norris[27]
81 Australia Oscar Piastri[28]
Germany Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team[29] Mercedes Mercedes[18] TBC TBA
TBC TBA
Italy Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team[30] Racing Bulls-Red Bull Ford Red Bull Ford[31] TBC TBA
TBC TBA
Austria Oracle Red Bull Racing[32] Red Bull Racing-Red Bull Ford Red Bull Ford[31] 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez[33]
33 Netherlands Max Verstappen[34]
United Kingdom Williams Racing Williams-Mercedes Mercedes[35] 23 Thailand Alexander Albon[36]
55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.[37]
Source:[38]

Team changes

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Audi and Cadillac will enter Formula One for the first time in 2026, while Ford will return for the first time since 2004. Honda will return as a fully-fledged engine supplier for the first time since 2021.

Three new engine manufacturers will enter Formula One, coinciding with the engine regulation changes. Audi will enter the sport for the first time, having purchased the existing Sauber team in 2024. The team will race in the 2024 and 2025 seasons as Kick Sauber, using Ferrari engines, before becoming the Audi factory team for 2026. As a result, Haas will become the only Ferrari customer team.[39][40]

Ford will return to Formula One as an engine supplier for the first time since it provided engines for its own works team Jaguar and its former customers Jordan and Minardi in 2004.[41] It will form a partnership with Red Bull Powertrains, which will supply Red Bull Racing and their second team Racing Bulls. Honda, which partially withdrew from Formula One in 2021 whilst remaining in the sport as partners to Red Bull Powertrains, will split from the two Red Bull-owned teams and relaunch a fully-fledged engine program starting with Aston Martin under the Honda Racing Corporation banner. Aston Martin had used Mercedes power units since Aston Martin rejoined the sport, with Mercedes having supplied engines to Aston Martin's predecessors since 2009. Honda had previously collaborated with Aston Martin's predecessor Jordan from 1998 to 2002.[42][43][44]

Cadillac will become the eleventh team in Formula One, marking Cadillac's first appearance in the series and the first new team on the grid since Haas in 2016.[15][16] Cadillac had previously tried to unsuccessfully enter Formula One in conjunction with Andretti Global.[45][46]

Renault will cease to provide engines for Alpine from 2026 onwards after the string of poor results of their engines since hybrid power unit regulations era in 2014, making it the first season without any sort of Renault and French-licensed engine since the 1988 championship. This means Alpine will become a customer team as opposed to a full works outfit as had been the case since Renault reacquired Team Enstone – when they were competing as Lotus, and in 2015 they were running Mercedes engines – ahead of the 2016 season. The team previously ran under the Renault name from 2016 to 2020, and previously from 2002 to 2011 when Renault purchased what was then known as Benetton in 2000.[4] Alpine will become a customer team of Mercedes, utilising their engines and gearboxes from this season onwards.[5]

List of planned Grands Prix

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The following nineteen Grands Prix are contracted to be held in 2026:

Grand Prix Circuit Ref.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix United Arab Emirates Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi [47]
Australian Grand Prix Australia Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne [48]
Austrian Grand Prix Austria Red Bull Ring, Spielberg [49]
Azerbaijan Grand Prix Azerbaijan Baku City Circuit, Baku [50]
Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir [51]
British Grand Prix United Kingdom Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone [52]
Canadian Grand Prix Canada Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal [53]
Hungarian Grand Prix Hungary Hungaroring, Mogyoród [54]
Italian Grand Prix Italy Monza Circuit, Monza [55]
Japanese Grand Prix Japan Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka [56]
Miami Grand Prix United States Miami International Autodrome, Miami Gardens, Florida [57]
Monaco Grand Prix Monaco Circuit de Monaco, Monaco [58]
Qatar Grand Prix Qatar Lusail International Circuit, Lusail [59]
São Paulo Grand Prix Brazil Interlagos Circuit, São Paulo [60]
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Saudi Arabia Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah [61]
Singapore Grand Prix Singapore Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore [62]
TBC Spain Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló [63][64]
Spanish Grand Prix Spain IFEMA Madrid Circuit, Madrid [65][64]
United States Grand Prix United States Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas [66]

The following six Grands Prix are contracted for 2025, but do not have a contract for 2026:

Grand Prix Circuit Ref.
Belgian Grand Prix Belgium Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot [67]
Chinese Grand Prix China Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai [68]
Dutch Grand Prix Netherlands Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort [69]
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Italy Imola Circuit, Imola [70]
Las Vegas Grand Prix United States Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Paradise, Nevada [71]
Mexico City Grand Prix Mexico Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City [72]

Calendar changes

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The Spanish Grand Prix will move from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló to a new street circuit in Madrid built around the IFEMA Exhibition Centre,[65] with the former track's future being unknown due to its own coinciding contract for 2026.[64]

Teams will have the opportunity to run their cars in a series of three three-day tests, a significant expansion over previous testing programs to account for the new chassis and engine regulations.[73]

Regulation changes

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Power units

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New power unit regulations are due to be introduced for the 2026 season.[74][75] The new power units will still produce over 1,000 bhp (750 kW), although the power will come from different sources. The engine regulations will see the turbocharged 1.6 V6 internal combustion engine configuration used since 2014 retained. However, the MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit – Heat), which has also been in use since 2014, will be banned, while the MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) output will increase to 470 bhp (350 kW) from 160 bhp (120 kW). The power output of the internal combustion part of the power unit will decrease to 540 bhp (400 kW) from 850 bhp (630 kW). In addition, fuel flow rates will be measured and limited based on energy, rather than mass of the fuel itself. The power units will use a fully sustainable fuel being developed by Formula One.[76][77] The power units are expected to recover twice as much electrical energy as before.[78]

Car size and aerodynamics

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On 6 June 2024, the 2026 car concept was revealed. The concept featured new active aerodynamics in both the front and rear wings. The concept saw the elimination of the drag reduction system, being replaced by a new manual override engine mode.[79] The wheelbase was reduced from 360 cm (140 in) to 340 cm (130 in), the width was reduced from 200 cm (79 in) to 190 cm (75 in), and the minimum mass was reduced by 30 kg (66 lb). The tyres' widths will also be reduced by 2.5 cm (0.98 in) on the front pair and by 3.0 cm (1.2 in) on the rears.[78][80] The floor will have reduced ground effect to ease the issues cars have suffered with porpoising.[81] In October 2024, FIA announced that the downforce reduction of the 2026 cars compared to 2022–2025 generation of cars would be less than initially proposed for performance and safety reasons.[82] Later in the month, the FIA confirmed that the reduction in downforce from the 2026 generation of cars would be around 15%, a significantly smaller reduction than the originally drafted regulations which the FIA claimed had given the 2026 cars downforce reduction of over 40% compared to their predecessors. In terms of lap time difference this will make the 2026 cars two seconds slower than the 2022–2025 generation of cars rather than the four seconds slower initially envisaged in the initial draft of the 2026 technical regulations.[83]

References

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