The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or, as that glorious Canadian trio Rush put it (in Canadian French), "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."
This coming season sees the end of DRS, being the Drag Reduction System, something to which I'm sure Ru Paul would have serious objections... and the dawn of the moveable aero season. Pardon me for being silly... but wasn't DRS an item of moveable aero? Different name, same tiger stripes? Yet this time around DRS stands for "Drudge Reduction System". The last thing the FIA or Liberty Media want is constrained, skills-based, cat 'n' mouse racing! No, we need 151 overtakes a lap to keep the click-bait generation watching for one more crypto-currency ad.
Original DRS was introduced to take the drudge out of races which the FIA and Liberty claimed had become processions. Rather forgetting all those monster races of the 1950's and 1960's when the winning driver often did so by a margin of minutes, not seconds, and never hundredths!
Out on the roads of planet earth, the Lancia Thema of 1984 had a driver activated spoiler. The stunning Porsche 959 of 1986 used active aerodynamics via variable ride height. Then the 1988 VW Corrado was the first production road car with an automatically deploying rear wing. Closely followed by the 1990 Mitsubishi 3000GT which had active front and rear wings.
So, in 2026 the FIA are deploying (pun intended) moveable aero which Mitsubishi suppled to the general pubic 36 years ago. Good job guys! Very forward looking!
Back on the race track? Crude wings were used on the Porsche 550 spider back in 1956. Then Lotus placed them on the 1968 49B for Monaco that year. Can-Am cars also grew wings in the mid-1960's. (Let's not forget 1967 and Jim Hall's Chaparral 2F - Ed) Lotus were at it again with the 1977 Lotus 78 with advanced (for the time) side pods and a flexible aero skirt around the car. In 1978 Brabham added a fan to the BT46B to create their infamous fan car. This all ended with a ban on any form of skirts in 1982, until 2022 when ground effect was back in... until it was not for 2026. As you can see with F1 it really is the more things change the more they stay the same!
In Australia, due to a lovely amount of sunshine and no need to salt the roads in the winter (can the UK still afford to do that?) cars last a long time. I still see those glorious Mitsubishi 3000GT's on about a monthly basis. If Porsche, BMW or Audi had released it, today it would be considered a towering classic. As Mitsubishi released it today its status is that of a cult classic for a smaller group of car lovers. Yet, it is this moveable front and rear aero that the FIA is now presenting to the adoring fan base.
A rose by any other name? Well no. DRS by any other name. All in the name of spicing up the racing! The FIA Masters of removing Drudge!
So how will it be "Drudge Be Gone!" In 2026? With the current fan relationship with the FIA DBG might be a more fitting acronym standing for "Don't Bloody Get-it!"
I believe the FIA are leaving themselves so much wiggle room because they do not know how the It's "Not DRS System" (NDRSS) and the new electrical "Push to Piss-off Up-the-Road" PPUR system (the name already beloved by the Southern hemisphere Pitpass cats who love nothing better than a warm fire, an argument with the FIA and a good purr...) are going to interact. I've a nasty feeling they are going to discover that a clever driver can keep both safely in reserve to blast the fortunes of any poor soul sneaking up for an overtake. Your scribe is expecting a few comical moments at the start of the season before the FIA legislature springs into action and pummels the smart-arse teams with their big rubber mallet of equal opportunity and kills their advantage. Expect some "you don't see that every day" overtaking moments for the first few races.
Yet one team can challenge the FIA for hubris during this pre-season, being Audi. No doubt a tradition of excellence in the making.
Consider these oh so modest quotes dear reader...
From Jonathan Wheatley first... Having described their team launch as historic (for a team going back to its founding by August Horch in 1909 they actually already have a lot of history...) He then made a few choice statements.
"We're not here to mess around, it's an ambitious project. We're humble (!!). We know where we're starting from and we know where we want to go. We want to make Audi the most successful F1 team in history (I'll come back to this humble phrase in just a tick). There are milestones on that journey and we are starting today."
Gernot Dollner (Audi CEO) then tempered these fighting words with the far more reasoned... "Whenever we join a racing series, we join to win and to innovate and to bring motorsport forward. The ambition is to compete at the highest level and to compete for championships by 2030." - wow. No pressure then! Has he read the Toyota F1 story...?
Then their wonderful sound-bite slogan "To start something, stop at nothing". I'm sure there is a pile of caffeine and French champagne behind that one!
Then, to round out the hyper-quotes, we have this from Mattia Binotto (late of the Ferrari Parish, now Head of the Audi F1 project).
"Our approach to the journey. We are aware there may be (!) bumpy periods and failures, but to never stop, to have the passion to grow, it is the mindset to never stop pushing forward."
OK... to be most successful ever they need to eclipse a couple of modest numbers.
Between 1961 and 2008 Ferrari won the constructors' title 16 times. Next is McLaren on a mere ten titles between 1974 and 2025. Then we have Williams on nine championships between 1980 and 1997. Then we get to our two most recent power houses being Mercedes on eight championships between 2014 and 2021, and finally Red Bull on a half-hearted six between 2010 and 2023. But then Red Bull has won the Drivers' Championship eight times. V. Max being "let down" most recently by team mates in 2024, as he took the drivers' while the constructors' went to McLaren, then with 2021 being the other year this happened.
On their championship run Ferrari won 248 races. Indeed, the only other manufacturer on more than 200 wins is McLaren on 203. Then we have Mercedes on 131, with Red Bull just behind on 130.
And these are the figures Audi intends to beat?
It's great to have dreams. Last season McLaren won 14 of 24 races. This is a win percentage of 58%. Let's assume Audi instantly match this win rate, and maintain it. At that rate they only require 18 years to overtake Ferrari as the most winning of all time... assuming Ferrari win no races at all during that time. Not to mention that no one team has ever dominated for an 18 year streak! Mercedes became boring after a handful of years, as did Red Bull. Can we seriously imagine an 18 year winning streak for Audi!?
They say they want to challenge for the championship by 2030, so we need to add four more years to that 18 estimate. So, 22 years to become the most winning team ever being the year 2048. Mr. Wheatley will be 80 by then, Mattia a mere 78, while Nico will be a sprightly 60, and Gabriel a mere 43. So, all is possible!
Seriously what do these guys drink before talking to the press? Clearly not Red Bull. Maybe it's a fact that DRS now stands for "Delusion Reduction System". If so, Audi could do with fitting an upgrade soon.
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here
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