How the 2026 F1 regulations could impact racing and everyday life. Gunther Steiner discusses the potential challenges and opportunities of the 2026 F1 regulations.

Excitement is building around the 2026 Formula 1 season. The week beginning Monday, January 12, will mark the start of the team livery presentations for the upcoming championship. The cars we will see in these reveals will offer a preview of what will hit the track during the season. Of course, no team wants to reveal its “secrets” to the competition, so the areas most sensitive to development will likely remain without major solutions at least until the final testing session in Barcelona, if not until the season opener in Australia.

In a recent interview for Lottoland, former Haas team principal Gunther Steiner shared his perspective on what could happen to F1 teams in the early stages of this new regulatory era: “I have no idea who might have done a better job than others. It’s a completely new game, nobody knows, not even the teams. Each team only knows its own car. Some will do the right thing, others will not, and those who get it wrong will have to catch up.”

Steiner: “A major mistake could compromise a car’s competitiveness for up to two years”

“At the beginning, there will be exceptions,” Steiner continued. “Some teams will be very fast, while others will make a serious mistake and be slow for a year or two.” This prediction is far from unrealistic. We have already witnessed this type of disparity in 2014, especially with the introduction of new power units. Significant gaps between teams are expected initially, but over time, as seen in 2025, those gaps can shrink dramatically, almost disappearing with only occasional outliers. “If the 2022 regulations had remained in place, I don’t think there would have been many changes. McLaren would have continued to have such an advantage that it would have been very difficult for anyone else to catch up.”

Steiner: “Without innovation, technological development stalls”

According to Steiner, this is why regulatory changes are vital for F1: “It’s important to introduce regulatory changes from time to time. Otherwise, all the cars end up being the same and technological development stalls.”

This perspective is closely linked to broader environmental concerns that the automotive world is actively trying to address, even among the manufacturers competing in Formula 1. “The next generation of F1 cars will allow the development of sustainable fuels for combustion engines. This could have a huge impact on people’s everyday lives,” Gunther Steiner explained.

“Combustion engines will change, but with better, more sustainable fuels, they can still have a future,” he added. The aim that car manufacturers have set, as Gunther Steiner rightly notes, is not to rely solely on a fully electric future, but to combine innovation with sustainability, ensuring that internal combustion engines remain relevant in a greener, high-performance world.