Say goodbye to DRS, and hello to an electrical power boost.
Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marked the last time Formula 1 uses the Drag Reduction System overtaking aid, introduced in 2011. Next year, drivers will have to manage the car's systems more closely than ever with a more visible role for aerodynamic and electrical technology.
After a season-long title battle ended with Lando Norris' first title, here's what to expect in 2026:
The biggest regulation changes in years make cars shorter, narrower and lighter, with movable “active aerodynamics” — X-mode for straight-line speed, Z-mode for cornering — and more reliance on electric hybrid power.
The FIA's target was for electrical power to make up half of total output along with a traditional V6 turbo engine. Instead of DRS, drivers can deploy extra electrical power at key moments. That makes driving even more strategic but could lead to drivers lifting off the power and coasting on some straights to allow the electrical systems to harvest energy.
The FIA claims the rules emphasize driver skill but there have been mixed reviews from those who've tried 2026 designs in their teams' simulators.
Smaller, more agile cars could help overtaking but the fastest and slowest cars may be up to four seconds per lap apart on pace, tire supplier Pirelli has reported. In F1 terms, that's an eternity. Expect to see more engine failures as teams balance reliability with performance.
Could this be the year Lewis Hamilton finds his form again at Ferrari and chases an eighth title? Maybe not.
Even though he never got on with the 2022-25 cars, Hamilton told the BBC he was “not looking forward” to 2026 after the Las Vegas Grand Prix last month, yet another disappointment since he joined Ferrari.
Mercedes has designed some of F1's most dominant engines before, but its eye-catching “zero-pod” aerodynamic concept was a bust when the last regulation period began in 2022. Get both aspects right this time and George Russell could be a title contender after two wins in 2025. Mercedes also supplies engines to McLaren and Alpine.
Another team to watch is Aston Martin, which has its first car created with design great Adrian Newey in charge, now with Honda power, and is hoping it can make two-time champion Fernando Alonso an F1 race winner for the first time in 13 years. Williams too could make a step forward after abandoning its 2025 projects early to focus on 2026.
The F1 grid expands to 22 cars for the first time since 2016 as Cadillac becomes the 11th team with backing from General Motors.
The newest team will have two of the most experienced drivers as Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez return, with a combined 16 wins and 527 starts between them.
The American team has been taking lessons from NASA space programs and has a British boss who compares himself to an “inverse Ted Lasso” for the culture shock of working in U.S. auto racing.
British 18-year-old Arvid Lindblad will be the only rookie in 2026 at Racing Bulls. Eight of 10 existing teams have played it safe with the same driver lineup so the only other change is Isack Hadjar moving up to Red Bull to join Verstappen. Yuki Tsunoda drops into a reserve role.
The Madring is the one new circuit on the 2026 calendar. The Madrid street circuit takes over the Spanish Grand Prix title from Barcelona, which stays on the calendar as Spain gets a second race for the first time since 2012.
That means no space for Italy's second F1, the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the Imola circuit, which has held five races since 2020.
The season's over but there's one more day of driving left in 2025. Tuesday sees a single day of testing in Abu Dhabi with teams using modified “mule” cars to try out next year's tires, along with F1's usual test day for young drivers.
After 2025's red-carpet season launch show in London, the start of the 2026 season will be low-key.
The new cars hit the track for the first time at a private test in Spain starting Jan. 26.
There are two more open testing sessions in Bahrain in February before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 8.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain celebrates after becoming a world champion after the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Crowd erupts as McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain reacts on the podium after becoming the Formula One world champion following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, as the sun sets behind the track. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police forcibly entered the compound of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem early Monday, escalating a campaign against an organization that has been banned from operating on Israeli territory.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, said in a statement that “sizeable numbers” of Israeli forces, including police on motorcycles, trucks and forklifts, entered the compound in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and cut communications to the compound.
“The unauthorized and forceful entry by Israeli security forces is an unacceptable violation of UNRWA’s privileges and immunities as a U.N. agency,” the statement read.
Photos taken by an Associated Press photographer show police erecting an Israeli flag on top of the compound, and police cars on the street. Photos provided by UNRWA staff show a group of Israeli police officers inside the compound.
Police said in a statement they entered for a “debt-collection procedure” initiated by Jerusalem's municipal government, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The raid was the latest in Israel's campaign against the agency, which provides aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The agency was established to help the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of the Israeli state. UNRWA supporters say Israel hopes to erase the Palestinian refugee issue by dismantling the agency. Israel says the refugees should be permanently resettled outside its borders.
For more than a year since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA was the main lifeline for Gaza's population that largely relied on aid following the humanitarian crisis unleashed by heavy Israeli bombardment and blockades on the entry of goods.
Restrictions on goods have since eased after a US-brokered ceasefire was reached on Oct. 10.
Throughout the war, Israel has accused the agency of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the U.N. has denied. After months of mounting attacks from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, Israel formally banned it from operating on its territory in January.
The U.S., formerly the largest donor to UNRWA, halted funding to the agency in early 2024.
UNRWA has since struggled to continue its work in Gaza, with other U.N. agencies, including the World Food Program and UNICEF, stepping in to help compensate for a gap UNRWA says is unfillable.
“If you squeeze UNRWA out, what other agency can fill that void?” Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA’s director of external relations and communications, told the AP in Doha.
Alrifai said UNRWA has been excluded from the talks.
The agency shut down its Jerusalem compound in May after far-right protesters, including at least one member of Israeli Parliament, overran its gate in the presence of the police. Israel’s far-right has pushed to turn the compound into a settlement.
Netanyahu met with the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Mike Walz and other officials on Monday in a visit the Trump administration said was aimed at pushing forward the 20-point plan for Gaza, suggested in September by President Donald Trump, that includes the current ceasefire and its following stages.
In a statement, the U.S. mission to the U.N. said it would “discuss shared priorities for regional security and humanitarian aid."
With most of the hostage bodies returned to Israel by Palestinian militants, Arab and Western officials have said they expect an international governing body in the Gaza Strip to be announced in the coming weeks.
At the same time, Hamas has said it's ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons as part of its ceasefire with Israel, offering a possible formula to resolve one of the thorniest issues in the U.S.-brokered agreement.
Netanyahu and Trump are expected to meet in the coming weeks.
The developments are significant steps toward peace in a region that has been devastated by two years of war that has killed at least 70,360 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says that nearly half the dead have been women and children. The ministry is part of Gaza’s Hamas government and its numbers are considered reliable by the U.N. and other international bodies. The Health Ministry also says over 370 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.
The war started when Hamas-led militants attacked Southern Israel, leaving around 1,200 people dead and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military shot and killed one man Sunday night in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Officials said he was throwing rocks at soldiers with two other people, one of whom was arrested. while Palestinian health officials said they shot and wounded the other man. The military said no soldiers were injured.
Palestinian authorities identified the man killed as a 19-year-old man from the northern city of Qalqilya.
Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar, contributed to this report.
Hamas militants and Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) head to Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City to search for the remains of deceased hostages, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
FILE - People carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid that was unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Palestinians grab sacks of flour from a moving truck carrying World Food Programme aid as it drives through Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
Israeli police and officials hang an Israeli flag on the compound of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem, after Israel police forcibly entered the compound, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
FILE - Offices of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, are seen in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)
