Formula 1 is set to rename some of the complicated elements of the 2026 rules – such as manual override mode - in a bid to simplify things and make it clearer for fans.
While the finishing touches were made this week to the technical and sporting regulations for the all-new cars, work has also been going on behind the scenes to ensure that how things are presented to the public will be as clear as possible.
As part of that effort, some of the new concepts that are arriving for 2026 are to be rebranded, amid concerns that several of the names adopted for core components risked triggering confusion.
For example, F1 had already moved away from the original plan to name its active aero systems as ‘X mode’ and ‘Y mode’. But the subsequent switch to ‘straightline mode’ and ‘cornering mode’ also looks set to be dropped.
The FIA, in conjunction with F1 itself, has been consulting with relevant stakeholders, including fans, teams and broadcasters, to finalise the names for some of the core elements in a bid to create something that is unified.
The FIA’s single seater director Nikolas Tombazis explained that it was felt important that the already complicated 2026 rules were not made even more challenging for fans to understand by the names of systems not being easily understood.
“We are revising some of the terminology of this because we want to make it clear that we want to make it simple for the fans to understand what's happening,” he explained.
“We want to have a unified terminology used by the teams when they speak to the drivers on the radio, but also by the commentators on TV, and also the same terminology in the regulations.
“So we are doing an exercise now to make sure that we create simple terminology.
“I don't want to get now into the exact [specifics of] what each one of these terms will be now, because we are collaborating also with some other stakeholders on that, but we are looking at that.”
While a final decision on the new names has not yet been made official, The Race understands that there are some preferred options that have gathered support.
For example, it has been felt that the ‘manual override mode’ name – and its acronym MOM – for the power increase that is replacing DRS as the means of helping drivers overtake each other on the straights was deemed as far too confusing.
Instead, it is likely that this will be labelled more simply as ‘overtake’ mode.
This will be different to what could be known as ‘boost’ mode for when drivers are deploying their normal battery energy on the straights.
The unnecessarily-complicated naming of ‘straightline Mode’ and ‘cornering mode’ that is currently laid out in the regulations, and had been adopted after the ‘X-Mode’ and ‘Y-Mode’ initial idea, is likely to fall under the banner of simply being labelled as ‘active aero’.
With all the cars effectively running in the same wing modes either in corners or on the straights, it was felt that it was pointless officially labelling the different aero configurations.
