Why Horner is not a lone voice in F1 2026’s rules disconnect

Formula 1's 2026 regulations plan has caused a stir in the paddock with the number of people voicing concerns growing, most notably Max Verstappen and Christian Horner recently speaking out against them. But aside from assertions of a selfish competitive motive, the worries are on multiple factors which could trigger the FIA to act

Formula 1 loves a bit of history repeating itself. Decades can be charted to plot the spells of rules stability, where the field gradually closes up on itself before there is an inevitable regulatory overhaul that shakes things up and spreads things out again.

Time and again it is the start of new rules eras where one team invariably gets things more right than anybody else, as we are seeing with Red Bull right now. It is only a few years in that things properly start to settle down – only for the next major regulation revamp.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.