FIA’s Single-Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis has sought to clarify the functionality of the movable aero systems proposed in the draft 2026 Formula 1 regulations after reliability and safety concerns.
Last Thursday, the FIA revealed a draft set of chassis and aerodynamic regulations for the 2026 F1 season, including several changes to the current Formula 1.
Among the changes is the inclusion of movable front and rear wings to allow the cars to switch from high to low drag between the corners and straights.
This is deemed a necessary inclusion to aid energy recovery amid high-speed running due to the 2026 power units having a greater reliance on electric propulsion.
However, concerns have been raised over the safety of the movable aero system, with talk of the operation between high and low drag being automated.
Tombazis has clarified that control will remain predominantly in the hands of the drivers, much like DRS and rigorous testing will be conducted to ensure failures of the system are avoided.
“The general line we will follow is similar to the DRS,” Tombazis revealed to select media including Motorsport Week.
“So, the DRS, you need to tick the box in terms of distance or lap time distance to the car in front of you at a given point and then the driver can deploy.
“But it’s a driver that pushes a button and deploys the DRS and he is also closing it.
“So, it’s going to be effectively currently, if you think about how the DRS work, we think the approach for the X [low drag] mode will be exactly the same.
“Some conditions are being fulfilled like very low or no lateral acceleration, so effectively exiting the corner. If these conditions are ticked off, then when he will press the button, the driver will press.”
Tombazis stressed the system is “not going to be automated,” but in the event the driver fails to deactivate low drag before the braking zone into a corner, an automatic failsafe system will come into play.
“We’ll make sure it does deactivate,” he said.
Tombazis believes that an “extremely rigorous” approach to testing the proposed aero system, combined with learnings through the application of DRS will ensure that teams will be able to race safely and reliably when the 2026 season gets underway in a competitive fashion.
“The approach on failure analysis or FMEA failure and the system could be subject to, it will be subject to the same approach that back in the day was done with the DRS and we’ll just have the same extremely rigorous approach, making sure that the system once deployed the first time during the winter test will be just doing what it’s supposed to do and not subject to a constant reliability issue or even worse safety,” he said.
“A few teams might have a few hiccups in the first winter test is to be expected, but I really genuinely think the experience gained over the years on the DRS should be perfectly transferable on the front and therefore the system should be, it will not be a huge challenge for the teams in terms of can we get it to work and can we get it to work safely, reliably, because it’s going to be almost on every straight line.”
