McLaren explain potential radical F1 change after new rule introduced

McLaren has explained the new demands placed on F1 teams with the new straight mode system, and a potential radical change to car set-up. 

For 2026, under straight mode, both the front and rear wings will open to dump drag and boost top speed before closing to revert the car back into corner mode. This is the active aerodynamics. 

Whilst moveable rear wings have been part of grand prix racing since the advent of DRS in 2011, moveable front wings to this scale have not been, with the increased drag reduction power having a greater impact on car set-up. 

As such, circuits like long periods of straight mode activation, such as Australia's Albert Park or Italy's Monza, McLaren's performance technical director believes larger rear wings may be used to allow cars to shed even more drag, when in previous years, low profile designs were already used.

"Efficiency is still very much the most important thing now aerodynamically, but there is a change now as straight mode reduces the drag of the car significantly," Mark Temple told media, including RacingNews365.

"So it then becomes more about the amount of downforce you have in corner mode versus the drag in straight mode as a sa general rule.

"If you look at the season as a whole, there are some tracks where you have more straight mode than others, so as an example, in Belgium, the nature of the back of the circuit, you don't have straight mode all the way back up the hill to the bus stop chicane, which will be in corner mode.

"So then the drag in corner mode actually becomes more important, but at a circuit like Monza, where you have straight mode on all the straights, it is actually less important.

"You'll see an extra dimension to deciding how to set your car up, but if we think about circuits dominated by straight mode, then for sure, you'll see cars carrying larger rear wing and more of the total available downforce that they have, but at other tracks, like Belgium, it will perhaps be closer to what we've seen in previous years."