Drivers must deal with a sudden surge in downforce when switching from Straight Mode to Corner Mode. Teams have carefully managed rear and front wing closing sequences to avoid making the cars unpredictable, while also protecting suspension components and chassis integrity.
The 2026 Formula 1 cars are vastly different from those raced up to the end of 2025. In many ways, they sit at the opposite end of the spectrum, largely due to the introduction of fully integrated active aerodynamics. Not only is there a movable rear wing, but also an adjustable front wing designed to be used on the straights.
Sharp-eyed fans may have noticed an intriguing detail. Once both wings close at the end of a straight, sparks can often be seen flying from the floor of the cars. This indicates that the cars are bottoming out even before turning into the corner.
This phenomenon is a direct consequence of switching the wing profiles from Straight Mode to the high-downforce Corner Mode. The car suddenly gains a significant amount of aerodynamic load, which pushes it down towards the asphalt and causes the floor to scrape the track surface. During the evening sessions of testing in Sakhir, this effect was particularly visible.
Mark Temple, technical director of performance at McLaren, addressed this very topic, highlighting the novelty introduced this season through the dual wing closure.
“When you are on the straight at fairly high speed and then suddenly you re-enable or return the front wing and the rear wing to their high-downforce configuration, whereas in previous generations it was only the rear and only in qualifying and overtaking phases.”
“So you will see, perhaps you have already noticed when you are trackside, but very often the cars start touching the floor when Straight Mode is deactivated, you see sparks coming from the floor and so on. That is obviously something to consider.”
Engineers have had to work extensively to define the correct sequence for closing the two wings in order to prevent the car from becoming difficult to handle or unstable under corner entry.
“How do we deal with the fact that the car is not touching the ground and then suddenly touches it right when the driver is braking? The other aspect is that you do not want to increase all the front downforce and then not the rear. It is about finding the right balance in the wing closing sequence so that the car is as predictable as possible.”
“In reality, our experience so far is that all of this happens so quickly that it does not cause particular drivability issues. It is simply something we have been aware of in order not to create specific problems for the drivers or for the chassis.”
Temple also pointed out that the transition from Straight Mode to Corner Mode is not problematic because of the absolute level of load applied to the car, but rather because of the significant difference in downforce between the two configurations.
“I do not remember exactly what the total load level building on the car is, but in terms of total load I think it is lower than what we saw last year, because the overall aerodynamic load is roughly 25% lower, something like that. So it is more that you have much less downforce with Straight Mode active and then you recover it all. It is more about the change than the absolute load.”
As teams continue refining their 2026 packages, managing this sudden aerodynamic transition will remain a crucial area of development — not just for lap time, but also for reliability and driver confidence.
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