FIA aero boss Jason Somerville to leave, with a 2026 grid return looming
One of the principal authors of Formula 1’s next rules revolution is set to swap the rulebook for a wind tunnel. Jason Somerville, the FIA’s head of aerodynamics and a key figure behind the 2026 regulations, will leave the governing body and is expected to join a team once his gardening leave is up.
The FIA confirmed Somerville’s departure, noting he’ll serve his full notice — including gardening leave — and, during that time, will be shifted onto non-sensitive, non-F1 work. Access to confidential information has already been trimmed in line with standard off-boarding procedure. It’s the typical firewall put up when a major technical figure heads back into the competitive fray, and a measure teams will be watching closely given Somerville’s fingerprints are all over the 2026 aero concept.
Somerville has been the FIA’s aero chief since early 2022, steering the direction of the sport’s current ground-effect era and then leading the aerodynamic framework for the 2026 reset. That next ruleset, headlined by active aerodynamics, introduces the much-talked-about “X-mode” and “Y-mode” configurations — tools designed to crank up cornering efficiency while trimming drag on the straights. In short, it’s an elegant attempt to reconcile lap-time with raceability in an even more engine-heavy formula.
Before joining the FIA, Somerville ran the aerodynamics group at Formula One Management that helped write the 2022 regulations — a neat through-line from concept to execution. On the team side his CV is long and varied: Williams head of aero between 2011 and 2017, including the FW36 and FW37 that put Grove back on the podium and third in the Constructors’ Championship in 2014 and ’15. Senior roles at Lotus, Toyota and Tom Walkinshaw Racing frame the earlier chapters, plus an earlier stint at Williams in its BMW-powered days.
Where next? The paddock rumor mill has had a busy week. Early whispers linked Somerville to the incoming Cadillac operation, but that has been played down, and Aston Martin’s ongoing technical reshuffle is not expected to feature him either. The working theory inside several teams is Alpine — not least due to Somerville’s recent collaboration with Steve Nielsen at the FIA, and Nielsen’s own switch back to the Enstone team as managing director. Alpine isn’t commenting, and there’s nothing signed and sealed in public, but the fit would make sense on paper.
Timing is the key variable. Senior FIA personnel moving to teams face enforced cooling-off periods; Somerville’s is understood to be at least six months. That lines up with a 2026 start, which, let’s be honest, is exactly when his 2026 know-how becomes most valuable. Expect a fierce legal neatness around exactly what he can and can’t touch before then — and don’t be surprised if he’s kept away from anything even vaguely 2026-flavoured in the interim.
The broader significance isn’t subtle. Teams are racing the calendar as much as each other right now. The 2026 cars will live or die by the integration of chassis, aero and power unit philosophies, and active aero is the hinge on which that door swings. Hiring someone who helped draft the hinge gives you a shortcut through the grey areas and a better feel for where performance will hide once the first interpretations start to stretch. That’s why departures like this always make rivals a little jumpy.
It’s also a reminder of the sport’s odd balance: the FIA incubates ideas designed to keep racing close and safe, while the teams try to turn those ideas into competitive advantage. People who can translate between those two worlds are rare. Somerville’s done it before; he’s about to do it again.
For now, he leaves with polite words from the governing body and a carefully drawn perimeter around his day-to-day. The next time we see his work, it might be in the undercut of a front wing endplate or the choreography of a rear wing shift at 320 km/h. Either way, a rule-maker is heading back to the grid — just in time for the next big reset.
