Stefano Domenicali names one change he would make to current F1 cars

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The 2024 F1 season initially looked like it was going to be another total domination from Red Bull and Max Verstappen, but the picture has changed at the halfway mark.

McLaren and Mercedes have taken wins at four of the last five Grands Prix, with the former putting serious pressure on Red Bull’s lead in the Constructors’ Championship.

Where it was 115 points after the first six races, Red Bull now only leads by 42 points from McLaren at the halfway mark. With seven different winners, the first time since it has happened since the 2012 season, everything is set for a thrilling final 10 races of the season.

Talk has turned to whether the F1 regulation changes planned for the 2026 season are necessary given the healthy nature of the current competition. However, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali believes there is still one rule that should change as the cars develop when speaking to Motorsport.com.

Stefano Domenicali names one F1 rule he would change

Karun Chandhok has previously outlined how he wants to see F1 adopt a rule cycle every six years rather than the current four-year cycle, as it enables more teams to catch up over time.

While Domenicali is open to making the rules more stable in future, there is another aspect of cars that has changed significantly in the last decade.

“What will always be on the table in the future will be the car’s weight and dimension because we don’t have to forget where the formula car approach started,” said Domenicali.

“We are now in a situation where cars are big, cars are heavy, and maybe in the future, with this new development, we can decide to return to being lighter.

“But I would say, it is a bit premature to discuss. Let’s see, first of all, how we can prepare to be ready for the right technical regulation, as well as sporting regulations for ’26, and then we will discuss accordingly at the right time.”

F1 cars are set to get heavier but FIA wants to reduce weight from 2026

When George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix because his car was found to be underweight, attention turned to whether F1 cars are currently too heavy.

The dry weight of all the cars, which means without fuel in the tank, must be a minimum of 798kg. This has increased massively since 2009 when they were only 605kg.

Between 2009 and 2019 the total weight increased by 129kg before arriving at the current weight limit, while that is also now set to increase to an all-time high of 800kg in 2025. This is before 105kg of fuel is added for the race start, meaning F1 cars will be close to a tonne for the first time in history.

This is mainly due to a rule that the FIA passed at the latest F1 Commission meeting, whereby the teams agreed to increase the minimum weight of the drivers to 82kg from 80kg over health concerns.

Plans to reduce the car weight are on the cars for 2026 when the overall dimensions are set to be smaller, which should see it tumble to at least 768kg.