FIA signs off 2026–27 F1 tweaks on testing, sprints and staffing

The garages are quiet now, the smell of burnt rubber fading from Abu Dhabi, but in a meeting room far from any pit lane the next act of Formula 1’s drama was signed off. While teams grind away on smaller, lighter 2026 cars, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council has approved a bundle of sporting-rule tweaks for 2026–27 that will shape how this new era actually feels on a race weekend.

On paper they look dry: revisions to testing, sprint weekends and staffing limits. In reality they’re the guard-rails trying to keep a once-in-a-generation rules reset from turning into a lottery.

Start with testing. For years, pre-season has been a compressed blur, three days in Bahrain and straight into the fire. With an all-new technical rulebook and power units arriving in 2026, the FIA has accepted that’s not enough. As RaceFans reports, teams will get three official tests next winter – one at Barcelona in January and two in Bahrain in February – before the lights go out on the new era. Crucially, the governing body has confirmed this is strictly a one-off, with a return to a single pre-season test locked in from 2027.

That extra mileage is the sport’s safety valve. These 2026 cars, described by the FIA as more “agile, competitive, safer and more sustainable,” bring active aero modes, a huge jump in electrical power and 100% sustainable fuel. Without a broader pit window of testing, the first races risked becoming extended systems checks. Three tests give engineers time to turn wild theory into something that can survive 300km at racing speed.

The FIA is also quietly admitting the new machinery will be harder to run. The operational personnel cap – the number of staff a team can bring into the circuit – will rise from 58 to 60 for 2026, another change confirmed by RaceFans and RacingNews365. In its wording, the federation said the temporary increase is being made “to ensure teams can operate the new generation of cars effectively.” Two extra people might sound trivial, but in a world of razor-thin margins that’s a pair of specialist engineers or mechanics who can keep the show on the road when the unexpected happens.

Then there’s the sprint format, already one of the most hotly debated experiments of modern F1. Right now, a red flag in the single practice session on a sprint weekend can shred preparation time, with the clock ticking away while cars sit in the garage. From 2026, as RacingNews365 details, the race director will gain new flexibility:

“An allowance has been made for FP1 at a Sprint event to be extended following a red flag, to ensure that competitors are afforded relevant practice time.”

— FIA statement, via RacingNews365

In other words, if a crash or mechanical failure halts running, teams won’t be punished twice. The tweak, Motorsport.com notes, applies specifically to the six sprint weekends on the 2026 calendar, where every lost minute of track time magnifies the risk of a set-up mis-step before competitive sessions begin.

Tyres are being dragged into line as well. The FIA has clarified, via RaceFans and RacingNews365, that the usual tyre-usage restrictions in sprint qualifying will now stay in force even if the session is declared wet, closing off a loophole where conditions could reset the strategic deck partway through the weekend. Out-of-competition tyre testing rules are also being updated so that the mule cars used better reflect the 2026 machinery.

Zoom out, and you can see the sport trying to tidy its own rulebook before the chaos hits. RaceFans reports that the regulations have been rewritten into six distinct sections – from a new General Regulatory Provisions ‘Section A’ through Sporting, Technical and Financial rules to a dedicated Operational section – a move RacingNews365 says is aimed at avoiding “duplications or contradictions.” It’s regulatory housekeeping, but after years of arcane debates about wording on restarts and suspensions, clarity matters.

The changes to race suspensions and restarts themselves are billed as a simplification of procedures that were heavily revised only a year ago. Details remain buried in the fine print of the 2026 sporting regulations, but the intent is obvious: when cars are lining up on a damp grid and the crowd is buzzing under floodlights, nobody wants the show to stall on a legal technicality.

Put together, these tweaks are less about headline-grabbing revolution and more about making sure the revolution we already know is coming can actually be managed. Extra testing to tame the unknowns. A slightly larger, but still restricted, army in the garage. Sprint-weekend flexibility so one red flag doesn’t decide a weekend before the main event. All in service of giving drivers a fighting chance to write the next chapter themselves, rather than leaving the story to paperwork and panic.

When the first 2026 cars finally roll out at Barcelona, the air guns rattling in the cold morning air, every team will still be stepping into the dark. But thanks to these rule tweaks, at least they’ll have a little more light to see the apex.

Sources

RaceFans – FIA confirms one-off changes to testing and staff limits in 2026 rules update (10 Dec 2025)

RacingNews365 – FIA announce major F1 rule changes after key meeting (10 Dec 2025)

Formula1.com – Refinements to 2026 regulations discussed in latest Formula 1 Commission meeting (14 Nov 2025)

BBC Sport – What are the main rule changes for F1 cars for 2026? (23 Oct 2025)

FIA – 2026 FIA Formula 1 Regulations Hub (10 Jun 2024)

Motorsport.com – FIA addresses common F1 sprint race complaint (10 Dec 2025)