2026 Aerodynamic & Chassis Regulations

[TeamKoolGreen]

Here's what ai says

Was the venturi floors removed from the 2026 F1 regulations because the new 50% electric power unit could not handle the drag ?

Answer

The venturi floors were removed from the 2026 F1 regulations as part of a larger aerodynamic overhaul aimed at drastically reducing drag to suit the new power unit's characteristics. The new power units have a 50/50 split between combustion and electrical power, requiring the cars to be much more aerodynamically efficient on the straights.

Reasons for the Floor Changes

Drag Reduction: A primary goal for the 2026 regulations is to cut drag by 55% to work efficiently with the new hybrid power units. The previous ground-effect floors, while providing high cornering downforce, created significant drag.

Power Unit Synergy: With a significant increase in electrical power (from 120kW to 350kW) and a decrease in internal combustion engine power, the cars need less aerodynamic resistance to manage energy effectively and reach high speeds on straights.

[De Wet]

Why are the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions in place for 2026 if everybody is starting with a clean slate ?

F1 uses balance of performance to make sure everybody wins.

I know what it normally does... But 2026 is a complete rule set change & therefore different rules should apply...

[hollus]

Was the venturi floors removed from the 2026 F1 regulations because the new 50% electric power unit could not handle the drag ?

This you just make a leading question to an LLM AI?
You know it will take any shade of gray and run away with it to give an answer that includes your leading concepts in such a way that it more or less agrees with your question?
It will make up whatever it needs to make up. And defend both positions if needed.
They are a fast source of information, but not a source of good and reliable information and certainly not a source of authority.

There should be a new Brandolini’s law just for them.

[AR3-GP]

Why are the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions in place for 2026 if everybody is starting with a clean slate ?

F1 uses balance of performance to make sure everybody wins.

I know what it normally does... But 2026 is a complete rule set change & therefore different rules should apply...

What does the ruleset change have to do with it? A different team must win.

[sucof]

Was the venturi floors removed from the 2026 F1 regulations because the new 50% electric power unit could not handle the drag ?

This you just make a leading question to an LLM AI?
You know it will take any shade of gray and run away with it to give an answer that includes your leading concepts in such a way that it more or less agrees with your question?
It will make up whatever it needs to make up. And defend both positions if needed.
They are a fast source of information, but not a source of good and reliable information and certainly not a source of authority.

There should be a new Brandolini’s law just for them.

Agreed. These "AI" chatbots will trick you more if you know less. You have to understand it to just create good questions for it. Otherwise the answers will be biased, partial, or simply wrong.
I would not even ask this from a chatbot, since this is not something for anyone has a clear answer or data about. So LLMs will have no good enough source info to formulate a correct answer.

Anyways, Sadly, there should be a new forum rule, that "AI" is not allowed. I do not want to debate anything with them, for that I would directly talk to them. And here it is pure misleading, as we assume the posts are from humans.
AI would pollute forums to death.

[De Wet]

F1 uses balance of performance to make sure everybody wins.

I know what it normally does... But 2026 is a complete rule set change & therefore different rules should apply...

What does the ruleset change have to do with it? A different team must win.

Why ? The best team must win. If it's Mclaren again, so be it.

[johnnycesup]

Clearly the huge venturi floors produce more drag than a flat floor with a diffuser. Even if it is less relative drag than wings. And that is why the flat floor is back.

OK, initially you had disagreed that the underbody is more efficient in L/D than the wings, so we cleared that out I think. It is significant to note that 90s CART (when there was still chassis competition) kept their underbody venturi tunnels even when they were running basically no wing at all.

On the assertion that the flat floor is back because of the need to reduce drag, I havent found that anywhere, so it could be right or not, hard to know. It's no secret that the current cars are way too peaky, stiff and dependent on ride height and nobody likes to drive them, so IMO they took the opportunity fix that problem. Here's the-race when the 2026 car was oficially announced in july 06, 2024 (i haven't found any mention of flat floors in 2023): "Floors will become partially flat and diffuser power will be neutered, reducing the ground effect and the reliance of the cars on ultra-stiff and low set-ups."

Now about AI:

when I ask chatgpt your exact question (Was the venturi floors removed from the 2026 F1 regulations because the new 50% electric power unit could not handle the drag ?), the answer is basically NO, but the text is pretty bad IMO:


"No, the Venturi floors were removed from the 2026 Formula 1 regulations not because the new 50% electric power unit couldn't handle the drag, but because the primary goal was to improve the overall safety and aerodynamic performance of the cars. The removal of the Venturi tunnels, which were part of the ground effect aerodynamic philosophy used in previous years, is connected to a broader shift in how downforce is generated and how airflow interacts with the rest of the car.

The Venturi tunnels are known for generating a large portion of downforce through ground effect, but they also created certain aerodynamic challenges. The main concerns were the stability and complexity of the airflow under the car, as well as their impact on the cars' behavior, particularly in high-speed corners and when following other cars closely (which is vital for improving racing and overtaking)."

Gemini says YES, but the sources they cite are a 1yr old reddit post in which nobody mentions drag at all(before somebody replied to various year old comments yesterday, funnily enough lol) and an official f1 article where the flat floors are presented as: " This will mean less downforce and a higher ride height requirement that should lead to a greater variety of set-ups that suit a greater range of driving styles – thus levelling the playing field.", no mention of drag at all.

So the lesson here is that Gen AI is ---.

[AR3-GP]

I know what it normally does... But 2026 is a complete rule set change & therefore different rules should apply...

What does the ruleset change have to do with it? A different team must win.

Why ? The best team must win. If it's Mclaren again, so be it.

"the best team must win"?

This hasn't been relevant since the BOP rules were introduced in 2022.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Clearly the huge venturi floors produce more drag than a flat floor with a diffuser. Even if it is less relative drag than wings. And that is why the flat floor is back.

OK, initially you had disagreed that the underbody is more efficient in L/D than the wings, so we cleared that out I think. It is significant to note that 90s CART (when there was still chassis competition) kept their underbody venturi tunnels even when they were running basically no wing at all.

On the assertion that the flat floor is back because of the need to reduce drag, I havent found that anywhere, so it could be right or not, hard to know. It's no secret that the current cars are way too peaky, stiff and dependent on ride

So the lesson here is that Gen AI is ---.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem made this statement regarding the 2026 F1 regulations. (Only after the 2026 engine regulations simulations started coming out)

"Following the publication of 2026 power unit regulations two years ago we have taken opportunity to redefine the chassis regulations to match the energy requirement of the new power units"

I am just curious what you think he meant by this...?

And here is another quote from the official F1 website https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... GfLMywrgb2

In tandem, the rules have cut downforce by 30% and reduced drag by 55% in a bid to improve efficiency and handling

The reason is embedded right in the statement. They had to cut downforce and drag by 30% and 50% to improve efficiency.

[FW17]

OK, initially you had disagreed that the underbody is more efficient in L/D than the wings, so we cleared that out I think. It is significant to note that 90s CART (when there was still chassis competition) kept their underbody venturi tunnels even when they were running basically no wing at all.

I wonder how CART did it, It was venturi tunnel with a the front strakes to create the fluid seals the edge. This was unlike the F2, GP2, F3.5 etc cars of which had a tunnel bud did not have the front strakes.

CART did not have the problem of proposing or bouncing and they had a vast majority of the season on street tracks.

F1 i guess shot itself with allowing the cars to be too close the the road to begin with, while maybe they could have started with a higher ride height.

[FittingMechanics]

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem made this statement regarding the 2026 F1 regulations. (Only after the 2026 engine regulations simulations started coming out)

"Following the publication of 2026 power unit regulations two years ago we have taken opportunity to redefine the chassis regulations to match the energy requirement of the new power units"

I am just curious what you think he meant by this...?

And here is another quote from the official F1 website https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... GfLMywrgb2

In tandem, the rules have cut downforce by 30% and reduced drag by 55% in a bid to improve efficiency and handling

The reason is embedded right in the statement. They had to cut downforce and drag by 30% and 50% to improve efficiency.

This is why we have active aero (to reduce drag).
Going away from ground effect is a different reason (making cars less peaky, less water being raised, etc).

These things are not mutually exclusive. They had enough room to reduce drag by making active aero that they could live with the loss of "cheap" downforce from the underbody.

[Hoffman900]

OK, initially you had disagreed that the underbody is more efficient in L/D than the wings, so we cleared that out I think. It is significant to note that 90s CART (when there was still chassis competition) kept their underbody venturi tunnels even when they were running basically no wing at all.

I wonder how CART did it, It was venturi tunnel with a the front strakes to create the fluid seals the edge. This was unlike the F2, GP2, F3.5 etc cars of which had a tunnel bud did not have the front strakes.

CART did not have the problem of proposing or bouncing and they had a vast majority of the season on street tracks.

F1 i guess shot itself with allowing the cars to be too close the the road to begin with, while maybe they could have started with a higher ride height.

The strakes don’t seal the edge, they create a vortex under the floor that increases energy / downforce. They’re called vortex generators.

They work on a flat floor too, but F1 teams traditionally placed them at the bottom of the barge boards.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo ... ion_detail
One can see the downforce coefficient and drag coefficient of both venturi and flat floors, with and without vortex generators “strakes”

Ride height is some of it. F1 teams with modern tools were also creating more downforce than those cars had. Everyone forgets Newey’s formable years were in Indy Car, so he had experience with knowing wider aero window > a peaky and hard to control aero window, and henced he directed the RB team in this direction.

Everyone forgets that to go fast on a road course, the lap time is in the corners. If you’ve noticed over the years, regardless of power, terminal speeds are about the same for 60 years. Part of that is rules (rules makers create performance targets), but part of that is you use all that horsepower to create downforce (which subsequently creates drag). I forget the exact value, but a generation of cars ago (2013ish), I did a back of the hand calculation based on published numbers and came up with the cars were consuming 700hp or so in drag at 200mph. The real work is the more downforce you can have for a given drag number (which you can express in horsepower consumed), the faster you’ll be

[sucof]

Clearly the huge venturi floors produce more drag than a flat floor with a diffuser. Even if it is less relative drag than wings. And that is why the flat floor is back.

OK, initially you had disagreed that the underbody is more efficient in L/D than the wings, so we cleared that out I think. It is significant to note that 90s CART (when there was still chassis competition) kept their underbody venturi tunnels even when they were running basically no wing at all.

On the assertion that the flat floor is back because of the need to reduce drag, I havent found that anywhere, so it could be right or not, hard to know. It's no secret that the current cars are way too peaky, stiff and dependent on ride height and nobody likes to drive them, so IMO they took the opportunity fix that problem. Here's the-race when the 2026 car was oficially announced in july 06, 2024 (i haven't found any mention of flat floors in 2023): "Floors will become partially flat and diffuser power will be neutered, reducing the ground effect and the reliance of the cars on ultra-stiff and low set-ups."

Now about AI:

when I ask chatgpt your exact question (Was the venturi floors removed from the 2026 F1 regulations because the new 50% electric power unit could not handle the drag ?), the answer is basically NO, but the text is pretty bad IMO:


"No, the Venturi floors were removed from the 2026 Formula 1 regulations not because the new 50% electric power unit couldn't handle the drag, but because the primary goal was to improve the overall safety and aerodynamic performance of the cars. The removal of the Venturi tunnels, which were part of the ground effect aerodynamic philosophy used in previous years, is connected to a broader shift in how downforce is generated and how airflow interacts with the rest of the car.

The Venturi tunnels are known for generating a large portion of downforce through ground effect, but they also created certain aerodynamic challenges. The main concerns were the stability and complexity of the airflow under the car, as well as their impact on the cars' behavior, particularly in high-speed corners and when following other cars closely (which is vital for improving racing and overtaking)."

Gemini says YES, but the sources they cite are a 1yr old reddit post in which nobody mentions drag at all(before somebody replied to various year old comments yesterday, funnily enough lol) and an official f1 article where the flat floors are presented as: " This will mean less downforce and a higher ride height requirement that should lead to a greater variety of set-ups that suit a greater range of driving styles – thus levelling the playing field.", no mention of drag at all.

So the lesson here is that Gen AI is ---.

Please stop asking and or quoting AI here.
No one here wants to debate and chat with any AI, for that we can do that directly to it.
This is simply a pollution of the forum.

[Hoffman900]

Clearly the huge venturi floors produce more drag than a flat floor with a diffuser. Even if it is less relative drag than wings. And that is why the flat floor is back.

OK, initially you had disagreed that the underbody is more efficient in L/D than the wings, so we cleared that out I think. It is significant to note that 90s CART (when there was still chassis competition) kept their underbody venturi tunnels even when they were running basically no wing at all.

On the assertion that the flat floor is back because of the need to reduce drag, I havent found that anywhere, so it could be right or not, hard to know. It's no secret that the current cars are way too peaky, stiff and dependent on ride height and nobody likes to drive them, so IMO they took the opportunity fix that problem. Here's the-race when the 2026 car was oficially announced in july 06, 2024 (i haven't found any mention of flat floors in 2023): "Floors will become partially flat and diffuser power will be neutered, reducing the ground effect and the reliance of the cars on ultra-stiff and low set-ups."

Now about AI:

when I ask chatgpt your exact question (Was the venturi floors removed from the 2026 F1 regulations because the new 50% electric power unit could not handle the drag ?), the answer is basically NO, but the text is pretty bad IMO:


"No, the Venturi floors were removed from the 2026 Formula 1 regulations not because the new 50% electric power unit couldn't handle the drag, but because the primary goal was to improve the overall safety and aerodynamic performance of the cars. The removal of the Venturi tunnels, which were part of the ground effect aerodynamic philosophy used in previous years, is connected to a broader shift in how downforce is generated and how airflow interacts with the rest of the car.

The Venturi tunnels are known for generating a large portion of downforce through ground effect, but they also created certain aerodynamic challenges. The main concerns were the stability and complexity of the airflow under the car, as well as their impact on the cars' behavior, particularly in high-speed corners and when following other cars closely (which is vital for improving racing and overtaking)."

Gemini says YES, but the sources they cite are a 1yr old reddit post in which nobody mentions drag at all(before somebody replied to various year old comments yesterday, funnily enough lol) and an official f1 article where the flat floors are presented as: " This will mean less downforce and a higher ride height requirement that should lead to a greater variety of set-ups that suit a greater range of driving styles – thus levelling the playing field.", no mention of drag at all.

So the lesson here is that Gen AI is ---.

Please stop asking and or quoting AI here.
No one here wants to debate and chat with any AI, for that we can do that directly to it.
This is simply a pollution of the forum.

A lot of this here. People posting with AI slop to act like they’re smart.

[sucof]

Please stop asking and or quoting AI here.
No one here wants to debate and chat with any AI, for that we can do that directly to it.
This is simply a pollution of the forum.

A lot of this here. People posting with AI slop to act like they’re smart.