Leftfield idea emerges to tackle F1 2026 qualifying crisis

A radical overhaul of Formula 1’s active aero rules has emerged as one of the ideas under consideration to help make much-needed improvements to qualifying.

Ahead of a rules summit involving F1 chiefs plus technical representatives from teams and power unit manufacturers on April 9, two items look set to dominate the agenda.

The first, which has been pushed to the top of the list as a much-needed fix, is finding a way to avoid a repeat of the circumstances that triggered Ollie Bearman’s high-speed crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Dramatic offsets of car speeds between cars charging their batteries and those that are using boost for extra speed have been a cause for concern since before the start of the season.

The 50km/h speed difference between Bearman and Franco Colapinto’s car that caught the British driver out and resulted in his spin has exposed how big the consequences can be when things go wrong.

But alongside the safety issue is a debate about ways to improve qualifying – with several factors believed to have triggered concerns from F1 stakeholders that improvements need to be made.

The need for drivers to manage energy on qualifying laps, whereas traditionally they have been about driving flat out, is accepted as being far from ideal for the pinnacle of motor sport.

Furthermore, there is a growing belief that the major drop-off in car speeds at the end of straights – sometimes as much as 50km/h – is not a good look for the outside world.

Both the safety and qualifying issues can be addressed if F1 can find a way to help alter the performance profile of the cars – stopping the speed spike in the middle of straights, and reducing energy demands so there is no more need for lift-and-coast tactics that create these speed offsets.

It has long been suggested that a push to reduce energy deployment levels – down from 350kW to as little as 200kW – could help improve things as energy would be stretched out over a longer period of the straight.

There are also suggestions that making it more beneficial to harvest through super clipping – which is where a car at full throttle switches into charging mode – could help. The idea is to lift the allowance from the current 200kW to 350kW.

While added together these elements would theoretically deliver gains, early testing of the behaviour as well as computer simulations has shown their impact to be minimal.

This is why there is an increasing view that the best way to achieve a better qualifying spectacle could actually be in reducing the energy recharge limit over a lap.

This is currently set at 9MJ in qualifying for a lot of circuits, but in Japan last weekend it was pulled back to 8MJ.

One idea under consideration is to cut the harvesting ceiling to as low as 6MJ, which would minimise any need for lift-and-coast tactics at the end of straights - as there should be little problem in cars getting up to that limit at most tracks.

But the chief headache that needs to be solved if F1 heads down this path relates to the speed of the cars – with estimates suggesting that a drop down to 6MJ could increase laptimes by around two seconds and make the cars much slower on the straights.

Thoughts have shifted as to how to counter this problem, with one suggestion being to increase the fuel flow allowance for qualifying – ensuring that drivers would not be power-starved in the fight for grid positions.

However, there is a view that altering the fuel flow of the current power units in the short term is not practical – as it would have an impact on internal components designed for the current rules and could trigger reliability issues. This is why any movement on this front is unlikely until 2027.

This is why the topic of active aero has suddenly entered the frame – as it could be a valuable tool in helping the performance of the cars over a lap.

The benefit of this would be a reduction in drag around much more of each lap – meaning less battery would need to be deployed and therefore reducing management headaches and making cars quicker under acceleration.

Switching a car into straight mode at the moment helps reduce drag by between 25-40% depending on downforce levels at a track.

However, it is only used in specific sections of a circuit that have minimal lateral loads.

Evaluation studies are now underway to see if it could be possible to open up the active aero rules – and even go as far as allowing it to be used wherever drivers want to in qualifying.

Were straight mode to be allowed in more sections, like through 130R at Suzuka for example, then it could become an area of variation between teams.

Teams could choose for straight mode to be zero downforce, so drivers would need to switch to corner mode in all bends.

Or they could pitch the open wing mode to a higher downforce level (with a drag compromise) so drivers could keep it open through some fast-flowing bends.