The FIA has published the changes made by the World Council for the 2025 and 2026 F1 seasons. The Sporting Regulations are evolving in small steps, but a decision is important for next season.
The federation has decided to abandon the point given to the author of the best lap since 2019. The rule normally stipulates that the driver who achieves the best lap, provided that he finishes in the top 10 of the race, scores a point additional.
This rule will be removed from 2025, certainly following the best lap achieved by Daniel Ricciardo for RB F1 in Singapore, which helped Red Bull against McLaren, and more precisely Max Verstappen against Lando Norris.
The FIA also announced that it will double the tests for young drivers. This means that each holder will have to give up their wheel twice during the season to give a beginner a ride twice, for a total of four sessions offered to young drivers at least.
Sporting and financial changes for 2026
The FIA has announced that its regulations will evolve in 2026, with a new structure to establish them. Themes will be used to sort the rules for greater clarity and consistency.
The Technical Regulations have been detailed for 2026, but the FIA has not yet made them public. We only know that the cars will have better aerodynamic performance than initially expected, without disturbing drag and therefore sacrificing on-track struggles.
The Sporting Regulations will also evolve to include the fact that cars will have a “straight line mode” and a “corner mode” from 2026. Indeed, active aerodynamics will require certain arrangements to be specified depending on the mode used.
Finally, the Financial Regulations will also change in 2026. The FIA has worked with the teams and Formula 1 to draw an initial assessment of the budget cap introduced in 2021. The exclusions will evolve, as will the monitoring methodologies.
The FIA confirms that the amount of the budget cap will evolve to incorporate these changes, and that there will also be an increase in it to incorporate inflation.
