F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 Upgrades: Audi Rebuild Quietly While Williams Finally Get Their Floor

The F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 upgrades list published by the FIA runs to 38 declared changes across six teams, and Audi account for fourteen of them. Front wing, nose, floor, bodywork, rear suspension, rear wing. Almost every aero surface on the car has something new on it. Williams bring the floor package they’ve been building towards, five items with four of them tracing back to the new floor. McLaren file eight, including a new flap position for straight line mode on the rear wing. Red Bull switch from the Reliability entries they filed in Madrid to a Performance floor. Racing Bulls rework the front end and Cadillac pair a brake cooling change with a diffuser winglet. Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Haas and Alpine declare nothing.

Key Points: F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 Upgrades

• Six teams declare 38 changes for Baku: Audi 14, McLaren 8, Red Bull 5, Williams 5, Racing Bulls 3, Cadillac 3
• Audi bring a new floor, front wing, nose, bodywork and rear wing assembly, the largest package on the list by a distance
• Williams’ new floor sets off a chain of changes through the tail, rear suspension and rear brake ducts, with a reworked front corner alongside it
• McLaren rework sidepods, engine cover, floor edge and diffuser, and change where the rear wing flap opens in straight line mode
• Red Bull move from two Reliability items in Madrid to a Performance floor and sidepod package
• Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Haas and Alpine declare no updates

Reading the FIA List

Every team files a car presentation submission with the FIA before each race weekend. It lists the new aero and bodywork parts they’re bringing, what each one is meant to do, and why. It shows what’s new for Baku. It doesn’t cover setup changes or parts a team has already raced.

The count beside each team isn’t a performance ranking either. Audi split one package across fourteen separate entries. Williams file five, and one of those five is a new floor. A short list can still hold a big change.

Two phrases come up again and again in the submissions. Flow conditioning means controlling where the air goes and how cleanly it reaches the next part of the car. Local load means more downforce from one specific area, with no claim about the car’s total downforce.

Audi Revolut F1 Team

Fourteen items. More than anyone else on the list, and not far off double McLaren’s eight. Audi group them into six blocks: front wing and nose, front suspension, floor, bodywork, rear suspension and rear corner, and the rear wing. Every block is described as part of one package. Read them in order and the floor sits in the middle of it, with the rest of the car built to feed it or balance it.

The Front End

A full new front wing, a new endplate and an updated nose fairing. First part of the car to hit the air. It makes the front downforce, and whatever airflow it sends back, everything behind it has to live with.

The new wing is there to deliver better flow to the rest of the car while also covering the balance levels the new package needs. Balance is the split of grip between the front and rear axles. Add load at one end without matching it at the other and the car starts to push wide or step out. So the new front wing is sized for what the rest of the package brings.

The front suspension covers change too. These are the aero fairings wrapped around the front wishbones, and Audi say they’ve been revised to complement the new wing and nose and support the aerodynamic intent of the package. They’re there to work with the new wing and nose, with no load claim of their own.

The Floor

Floor body, floor leading edge devices and diffuser. All three listed, all three new. Audi describe every surface on the floor as new, designed to deliver a consistent increase in load.

The floor is one of the car’s biggest downforce-producing areas, which is why a new one sits at the centre of this package. The leading edge devices sit at its front edge and decide how the incoming air gets split between going underneath and going around. The diffuser is the exit, the upswept section at the back where the air that has travelled under the car expands and leaves. Front edge, body and exit, all new in one package.

A floor can make big numbers in one condition and fall away in another as ride height and speed change. Audi’s target is load the car holds across those conditions.

Bodywork and Cooling

Revised bodywork and halo fairing, with the engine cover included. Audi say the revised bodywork and associated cooling options work with the updated package and improve management of the downstream flow structures. The shape of the bodywork steers the air heading to the back of the car, and the cooling options give different levels of opening depending on how much heat the car needs to reject. Every opening costs some aero performance, so having options matters.

The Rear End

Revised rear suspension covers and rear brake duct furniture, the small aero pieces mounted around the rear brake duct next to the tyre. Both revised to complement what Audi call the updated rear end flow field. Change the floor and the bodywork and the air arriving at the rear corner is different, so these parts get retuned to match.

The rear wing assembly changes as well. Audi list three components under one heading, beam wing, rear wing and rear wing endplate, and describe it as a revised rear wing assembly with updated elements designed to operate as part of the overall aerodynamic package. No standalone performance claim for the wing. It’s there to work with everything else.

Williams

This is the package Williams have been waiting for. Five items, and four of them trace back to the floor.

The floor itself is an updated bodywork assembly with new floor leading edge devices, a new floor body and new floor corner geometry. The floor corner is the outer rear section of the floor, ahead of the rear tyre. Williams say they’ve modified the forward and outboard regions to extract more performance both locally and across the main underfloor surfaces. Front edge and outer edge. The two areas that shape how much air gets under the car and how well the floor holds on to it.

The tail is next. Williams have introduced a revised tail geometry to suit the new floor, working with it to generate more performance locally around the RIS. That’s the rear impact structure, the crash structure bolted behind the gearbox. The bodywork around it sits above where the floor’s air exits, so a new floor needs a new tail.

Next, the rear suspension cladding. Williams have changed its orientation to suit the new onset flow, the air now arriving from the new floor and tail, and say that gives additional performance in the rear corner.

And the rear corner itself. New leading edge features on the rear brake duct furniture. Williams say the earlier geometry changes opened up a new flow field in the rear corner, and retuning these devices let them pull more performance out of it.

Floor first. Then a tail built around it, rear suspension realigned for the new flow, and rear brake duct furniture retuned for what the earlier changes opened up. Each change builds on the one before.

The fifth item sits at the other end of the car. Williams have reprofiled the flow conditioning devices on the front brake duct, updating the forward and rearward regions of the front wheel bodywork. Under the 2026 regulations part of the wheel bodywork is mandated, and it’s there to control the wake the spinning front tyre throws back down the car. Williams say the change improves the interaction with the front wing and gives an improved downstream flow field for the rest of the car. Cleaner air heading back down the car, towards the new floor.

McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

Eight items, and seven of them form one bodywork chain running from the sidepod inlet to the rear suspension.

It starts at the sidepod inlet, the opening that feeds the radiators. McLaren have reshaped it, and the stated aim is improved flow conditioning towards the rear of the car for better aero performance. The engine cover and coke line are revised alongside it. The coke line is the pinch in the bodywork as it narrows in towards the rear wheels, and its shape decides how the air running down the side of the car arrives at the floor edge and the back of the car.

There’s also an alternative sidepod shape, listed as an option for the new bodywork with different resulting aerodynamic properties. Two shapes available. McLaren can choose between them across the weekend.

The cooling louvres are the only item McLaren file as circuit specific. As part of the new bodywork, the louvre layout and position have been altered for maximum aerodynamic performance at various cooling levels. Louvres dump hot air, and every one of them costs a little aero performance. Moving them is about losing less.

The floor edge and diffuser are where the chain pays out. McLaren say the revised floor edge uses the flow conditioning changes from the bodywork, and the diffuser is revised to extract more performance from what they call the new flow topology. The rear suspension fairings are changed last, because the air arriving at them is now different.

The eighth item stands apart. In the 2026 regulations, straight line mode opens the rear wing flap on the straights to cut drag. McLaren have modified their medium rear wing, which they call the medium isochronal rear wing, so the flap deploys to an alternative position in straight line mode. The result, in their words, is a larger reduction in drag. The submission doesn’t name a circuit. Baku has a 2.2km flat-out run, the long stretch covered in my F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 tyre preview, and that’s where a bigger drag cut has the most road to work with.

Oracle Red Bull Racing

In Madrid, both of Red Bull’s changes were filed under Reliability, work to stop the rear wheel bodywork and the floor bib degrading, as covered in my F1 Spanish Grand Prix 2026 upgrades piece. Two weeks later, the classification has flipped. Four of the five Baku items are Performance or Flow Conditioning.

The floor body and diffuser get new geometry. Red Bull describe it as the realisation of development iterations, subtle changes within the permitted geometry to extract more local load while maintaining flow stability. A floor that loses its flow loses its load with it, so Red Bull are chasing more load without giving up consistency.

The sidepod has a new split line, the junction where it meets the floor, revised to supplement the floor changes and add more local load. The cooling louvres change only to blend the new sidepod into the surrounding bodywork. That’s the one Reliability item, and Red Bull say the range of cooling levels stays the same.

The last two are small parts in busy air. The mirror assembly geometry is revised to aid downstream conditioning and supplement the load increase, mirrors sitting in the path of the air heading to the sidepods. And the halo fairing gets a revised turning vane, which Red Bull say better serves downstream components, flow stability and therefore load generation.

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls

Three items, all at the front of the car, all filed as Flow Conditioning.

A new front wing assembly, which Racing Bulls say establishes a clean flow field and improves performance from the components downstream of it. Then a new front brake duct and front lip, and profile changes to the front suspension legs. The team describe the front corner and suspension changes as working with the new wing to manage flow downstream and around the car, allowing the floor to perform effectively.

No floor change of their own this weekend. This package is about what arrives at the floor.

Cadillac

Three items, and the first is the only brake cooling entry on the whole list. Cadillac have revised the front corner with updated brake cooling inlet and exit duct profiles, increasing the available brake cooling capacity while maintaining flow quality to the rear of the car. The front suspension fairings are updated to stay compatible with the new front corner and brake duct geometry.

The third item goes to the diffuser, the second race running Cadillac have filed a diffuser change. This time it’s the lower shedding edge of the rear diffuser winglet, reprofiled to increase local load across the operating envelope of the car. The shedding edge is where the air leaves the part, and its shape affects how cleanly it does that. Operating envelope means the full range of conditions the car runs through, speed and ride height included.

The Five With Nothing Declared

Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Haas and Alpine have no updates submitted for Baku. Mercedes filed the largest package of the Madrid weekend. This time, nothing.

None of the five have given a reason in the submission, and no declared update doesn’t mean no development. Teams can still run parts introduced earlier in the season, and packages get timed around production schedules and the circuits they’re built for.

Coffee Corner Take

Audi are the team to watch this weekend, and hardly anyone is watching them.

Fourteen items. A new floor, a front wing sized to balance it, new bodywork, a new rear end. A rebuild of most of the aero car in one weekend. They arrive in Baku chasing Haas for seventh in the Constructors’ Championship and having scored in five of their last six races. A team already scoring, now bringing the biggest package on the grid. That combination deserves more attention than it’s getting.

Williams are the team with the most riding on it. Ninth in the championship, and this is the package they’ve been building towards. Read the submission and every change links back to the floor, with one change unlocking the next. The FIA list only covers the aero side. Anything else Williams have changed for Baku won’t show up in this document.

Baku is a strange place to judge any of it. Long straights and a tight old town section, a circuit that rewards efficiency over raw load. A new floor built for consistent downforce might not show its full value until the next two weekends of the triple-header in Malaysia and Singapore. Judge Audi and Williams over three races.

And the front of the grid declared nothing. No Mercedes items, no Ferrari items. With the midfield this tight, a weekend where the leaders hold still on paper is a weekend to take ground.