F1 2026 regulations: How much does an F1 car weigh?

Leclerc during Day 2 of Bahrain Test 1 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 2026 Explained

F1 2026 regulations: How much does an F1 car weigh?

Cars are set to be much lighter in 2026

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 14 February 2026 13:53 Updated: 10:10

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There are lots of new regulations sweeping into F1 in 2026, and here at GPFans, we've got you covered if you're a little confused about them!

While new power unit regulations have kept power unit manufacturers busy over the last couple of years, the new aerodynamic car design changes are arguably even more radical.

F1 cars in 2026 are smaller, narrower, more nimble, and lighter, and this has been introduced to try and encourage better racing, particularly on some of the narrow street circuits on the F1 calendar.

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But how much lighter are they? And how hard is it going to be for teams to meet the minimum weight?

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How heavy is an F1 car?

Overall, an F1 car in 2026 has a minimum weight of 768kg, this is without fuel and is in an ideal world for F1 teams, with them likely being heavier than this in the early weeks of the season.

That minimum weight has been reduced by 32kg compared to 2025, in an attempt to reverse the direction of travel that had seen 200kg of weight added to F1 cars in the last 20 years.

In order to achieve this new car weight, the wheelbase of the cars have been reduced by 20cm and the car width reduced by 10cm.

The maximum floor width has also been reduced by 15cm, while the width of the front tyres have been decreased by 2.5cm and the rears by 3cm.

Will teams struggle to meet new F1 2026 requirements?

While there is no maximum weight limit, teams try to stick as close to the minimum limit as possible to make their cars quicker.

If a car weighs less than 768kg, teams can add ballast, which is an extra weight used to bring it up to the required number. It can also be added to the car when a driver weighs less than 80kg - a minimum weight that includes their body weight, helmet, race suit, and shoes.

If a car is found to have violated the minimum 768kg weight rule, it faces the risk of disqualification. A recent example of this happened during the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix when George Russell's car was found to be underweight during post-race checks, and Lewis Hamilton inherited the race win in his final season with Mercedes.

Audi technical director James Key recently said that he's not sure how many teams will actually be able to meet the minimum requirement at the start of the year, with it set to be one of the engineering challenges of the season to start making the initial cars lighter.

"It's a really tough goal," Key told Auto Motor und Sport. "I'm not sure if everyone will achieve it, we don't even know for sure ourselves yet.

"The car we've been driving so far still had a lot of sensors on board. I hope we can get close to the limit."

Williams recently confirmed that the FW48 that they have recently launched weighs 772.4kg, so they are not too far away from that minimum weight target.

When does the 2026 F1 season start?

The 2026 F1 season gets underway on Friday, March 6, at the Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.

FP1 will mark the first session of the season at 12:30pm local time (1:30am GMT), while qualifying will get underway on Saturday, March 7 at 4pm local time (5am GMT). Lights out for the first grand prix of the year is at 3pm local time (4am GMT).

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