FIA confirms 2026 rule tweaks for sprint weekends, testing, and staffing

The FIA has approved a set of temporary adjustments to Formula 1's sporting regulations for the 2026 season, designed to ease the transition into the sport's next major technical era. Key changes include a more flexible practice format for sprint weekends and expanded pre-season testing to help teams adapt to the new cars.

Why it matters:

These targeted updates address specific operational pain points teams have faced, particularly around the compressed sprint weekend schedule. By granting the race director the power to extend practice after red flags and increasing the personnel cap, the FIA aims to provide teams with more tools to manage the significant workload expected with the introduction of brand-new technical regulations in 2026.

The details:

The most immediate change affects the six sprint weekends scheduled for 2026. To mitigate the impact of session stoppages, the FIA race director will now have the discretion to extend the sole 60-minute FP1 session if a red flag occurs before the 45-minute mark, ensuring teams get their full hour of setup time. This rule was prompted by incidents at the 2025 Miami and United States Grands Prix, where red flags severely cut into practice running.

For pre-season preparation, 2026 will feature an expanded testing program with two official three-day tests in Bahrain, preceded by a shakedown in Barcelona. This is a temporary expansion to aid the transition to the new technical rules, with the sport set to return to a single pre-season test from 2027 onward.

Operational support is also getting a boost. The FIA has approved a temporary increase in the paddock personnel cap from 58 to 60 team members for the 2026 season, acknowledging the additional workload of the new car generation.

What's next:

These sporting regulation tweaks are the procedural groundwork being laid ahead of the seismic technical shift in 2026. The focus now shifts to the teams as they prepare for the expanded testing schedule and manage their resources under the new personnel limits. The success of these adjustments will be measured by how smoothly the grid adapts to the new cars and whether the sprint weekend changes effectively reduce the setup scramble that has drawn criticism from engineers and drivers.