F1 News: Active Aero Debuts and the First 2026 Shakedowns

The first 2026-specification cars turned their wheels this week, and the talking point is the same in every garage: how fast the active aerodynamics move. Teams are running the front and rear wings through their Z and X positions hundreds of times a day, chasing a transition that is smooth enough not to unbalance the car mid-corner.

Early running has been deliberately conservative. Nobody wants to discover the limit of the new energy rules in the wet on a cold track, and the first real performance picture is still weeks away. What is already clear is that the low-drag X mode is worth more on a long straight than any DRS flap ever was.