F1 teams bring 23 upgrades to Dutch Grand Prix as $2.3bn arms race heats up

Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are pictured in a composite next to each other — Photo: © IMAGO

Dutch Grand Prix

F1 teams bring 23 upgrades to Dutch Grand Prix as $2.3bn arms race heats up

Big changes across the grid

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson F1 Editor

Motorsport journalist covering F1 since 2024

Friday 21 August 2026 13:01

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F1 is finally back after the summer break, and teams have delivered a huge number of upgrades across the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix.

With a major aerodynamic and power unit overhaul heading into the 2026 campaign, F1 teams have once again been faced with the task of getting to grips with a totally new car this season, with the teams who can understand their new machines fastest and bring upgrades to their cars having a major advantage.

This is particularly tough in the cost-cap era, though, with each of the 11 teams on the grid allowed to spend a maximum of $215 million per year on operational costs. That's $2.36 billion in total across the grid.

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That said, the teams have clearly been busy working hard on things for this weekend, and we've got all of the information on the parts that have been introduced below.

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Every F1 team's upgrades at Dutch Grand Prix

A total of 23 upgrades have been delivered across the F1 grid for this weekend's action in Zandvoort, with Alpine the busiest team, introducing eight upgrades for the Dutch Grand Prix, with changes to their floor and rear wing, among other things.

Ferrari and Aston Martin are in a close second, though, with a host of aerodynamic changes being made to both the SF-26 and AMR26 ahead of the second half of the campaign. Don't forget, Aston Martin also have the new spec Honda power unit on board for the first time, too.

Elsewhere, McLaren has made three upgrades to the MCL40 on their rear wing, engine corner and rear corner, with Mercedes and Red Bull making a single change for this weekend's race to their front corners.

Williams, Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi and Cadillac have brought no upgrades to the event.

**F1 upgrades for 2026 Dutch Grand Prix**
Team	Updated component	Primary reason for update	Description
Mercedes	Front Corner	Performance – Flow Conditioning	Detaching the lip from the duct inlet improves flow quality over the inboard face of the drum throughout the steer range, improving flow to the rear of the car.
Ferrari	Floor Body	Performance – Local Load	This floor development targets a global increase in aerodynamic load across the entire operating range, combined with improved robustness of the underlying flow mechanisms, enhanced flow topology, and greater flow energy delivered to the rear diffuser.
Ferrari	Floor Board	Performance – Local Load	As above
Ferrari	Floor Edge	Performance – Local Load	As above
Ferrari	Diffuser	Performance – Local Load	Benefitting from improved onset flow quality, the diffuser expansion and geometry has been further optimized and returns increased aerodynamic load, whilst still maintaining flow stability.
Ferrari	Beam Wing	N/A	Minor update, working in interaction with the new rear diffuser, with particular attention put on flow quality.
McLaren	Rear Wing	Performance – Local Load	A new rear wing assembly has been designed and delivered to this event, aiming to increase aerodynamic load efficiently in all conditions.
McLaren	Coke/Engine Cover	Performance – Local Load	The furniture around the coke as well as the tailpipe have been revised to extract additional efficient aerodynamic performance in conjunction with the rear wing.
McLaren	Rear Corner	Performance – Flow Conditioning	The rear brake duct has been revised internally as well as externally, aiming at improved flow conditioning resulting in better aerodynamic and brake cooling performance.
Red Bull	Front Corner	Reliability	To improve reliability of the wheel bodywork assembly, the lower wishbone rearward leg chord length has been locally shrunk to reduce strain on the gaiter at high steering angles.
Racing Bulls	No updates	N/A	N/A
Alpine	Floor Body	Performance – Local Load	The floor geometry has been revised to improve surface flow quality throughout the operating envelope and deliver increased local aerodynamic loading.
Alpine	Floor Board	Performance – Flow Conditioning	The floor board has been reprofiled to improve the quality of the flow delivered to the rear of the car.
Alpine	Floor Edge	Performance – Local Load	The floor edges and profiles were redesigned to increase local aerodynamic loading, enhancing airflow management, efficiency, and overall performance gains.
Alpine	Diffuser	Performance – Local Load	This diffuser geometry has been developed to increase local aerodynamic loading, providing an efficient performance gain across the full operating envelope of the car.
Alpine	Sidepod/Coke	Performance – Flow Conditioning	The bodywork has been redesigned to work efficiently alongside the new floor while maintaining sufficient cooling capacity.
Alpine	Rear Corner	Performance – Local Load	Elements on the rear drum face have been reprofiled to improve flow interaction with the floor and deliver local load.
Alpine	Rear Impact Structure	Performance – Local Load	The new updated geometry is aimed at increasing aerodynamic load locally and efficiently throughout the operating range of the car.
Alpine	Rear Wing	Performance – Local Load	The flap profile has been refined to efficiently increase rear wing load while maintaining a high-quality, stable flowfield.
Haas	No updates	N/A	N/A
Audi	No updates	N/A	N/A
Williams	No updates	N/A	N/A
Aston Martin	Front Wing	Performance – Local Load	The local changes to the final element and to the inboard foot of the FWEP improves the performance of the new front wing introduced at the previous event.
Aston Martin	Front Wing Endplate	Performance – Local Load	The modification to the inboard foot improves the performance of the new front wing package.
Aston Martin	Front Wing	Performance – Local Load	The flap extends the range of balance that can be achieved with front wing adjustment for car setup optimisation.
Aston Martin	Floor Fences	Performance – Local Load	Changes at the back of the car work in combination to increase rear load after evaluating the performance of the new package.
Aston Martin	Diffuser	Performance – Local Load	Modification to the lower edge of the diffuser winglet.
Cadillac	No updates	N/A	N/A