There is an important development area that has gone under the radar, but to which the teams are paying great attention. It concerns the rims, whose design this year has returned to the teams, determined to make the most of the opportunity in terms of tire management. The new regulations, however, have highlighted numerous issues regarding tires, all topics of the video interview with FormulaPassion by Mario Isola, former director of Pirelli Motorsport.
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The battle over the rims
The 2026 regulations have reintroduced free rim design for the teams, abolished between 2022 and 2025, but now again at the center of designers’ attention. Isola explains: “Standard rims had only been imposed in recent years, when we moved from 13 to 18 inches. We know how much teams develop rims to seek performance. We learned this in the past: the heat transfer from the brake to the rim and, consequently, maintaining a desired air temperature inside the tire becomes an important parameter for performance.”
“We are already seeing teams developing rims,” continues the Pirelli Motorsport representative. “Some have already modified them, so we know we have to keep our eyes open. We have given guidelines to develop the rims, so that they don’t come up with such exotic solutions that we can no longer even mount the tires on the rim. It sounds like a joke, but in the past we have also experienced these situations. So yes, we have given guidelines, but we know that certain concepts or ideas will be developed to have a positive impact on performance.”
Most likely, rim development will continue in the coming months, with Isola expecting updates, but in moderation: “Certainly yes, although I imagine less than in the past due to the budget cap. Redoing the entire rim set costs money. If in the past we had modifications almost from one race to another, today I imagine wave-like development.”
Development forecasts
The rims will not be the only area of car development, which is expected to evolve in every area. Regarding this, Pirelli has received load estimates from the teams for the end of the season, confirming forecasts of significant growth, although not yet quantifiable on the stopwatch. “It’s difficult to do this in terms of lap time,” explains Isola. “More specifically, we looked at loads and speeds, which are what interest us in terms of product integrity. We have received simulations with the expected performance for the end of the year. We definitely expect significant development.”
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According to Mario Isola, the next Grand Prix will coincide with a considerable leap forward in performance, with large update packages expected for all teams: “It’s hard to say whether development will be linear or if there will be peaks during the year, that is moments when we will really see a performance jump. It’s likely that the first will be seen in Miami, because the teams have had the chance to work on the cars and observe those of competitors, also taking some cues.”
The challenges of 2026
Pirelli will closely monitor the evolution of the load levels of the cars, evaluating how to adjust inflation pressures. From this year, the task is more difficult due to the frequent use of active aerodynamics, which is also more powerful than the old movable rear wing. Isola explains: “Until 2025 there was an issue related to DRS: when it opened, the rear tires unloaded, while the front ones loaded a bit more. All this, however, was a well-known phenomenon. Today we have very different and complicated scenarios, with active aerodynamics fully open on dry and, in wet conditions, fully or partially closed. These are a series of situations that translate into different loads and speeds, to be considered when, prioritizing safety, we have to provide prescriptions that guarantee the safe use of tires. Whereas before there was only one condition, today there are four different ones.”
“For the same reason, the classification of circuits has also changed a bit, excluding energy management,” continues the former head of Pirelli Motorsport. “On tracks with many straights, like Monza, we will indeed find lower loads, but significantly higher speeds, while there will be circuits with different situations. We will go to Silverstone and many tracks rich in fast corners, where active aerodynamics will remain closed and where therefore we will have a lot of cornering load with speeds not so different from those we had until last year, but with smaller tires and less capacity to sustain these loads. Obviously, we will have to work on camber and pressures to stay within certain parameters,” concludes Isola.
