Lance Stroll has delivered a savage takedown of the 2026 Formula 1 regulations, calling them “fundamentally flawed” ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
Stroll has endured a nightmare start to 2026 with Aston Martin, his car suffering from extreme vibrations caused in part by its Honda power unit.
But the Canadian is also part of the camp that does not favour the new power units brought in for this year and the impact on the racing.
The FIA has introduced enhancements this weekend in Miami, which it hopes will lessen the impact of superclipping and address vast differences in closing speeds.
Ahead of the weekend getting underway, Stroll outlined his hopes for the changes’ impact on the racing spectacle.
“Hopefully it’s better with the part throttle and all this stuff,” he said.
“It’s just destroying the racing, the qualifying laps.
“So hopefully it’s a bit more normal to drive, we don’t have to think too much about all the management and lift and coast and how much throttle we’re putting on and all this stuff.
“But I think we’re still far away from proper F1 cars and pushing flat out without thinking about batteries.”
Put to him that he sees the changes as a band-aid solution then, Stroll confirmed: “I think so.”
Lance Stroll pushes for return to early 2000s era
Stroll confirmed that during the enforced break, he was “randomly watching old races and stuff.
“I even had the Monaco historics on the TV, and I heard some Ferrari cars from early 2000s and how good they sounded, and how small and nimble they were.
“And there were some onboards I saw from the early, or even mid 2000s in the V8 or V10 era.
“And then what it looks like versus now. It came up on my phone, and I was watching it, and you hear what it’s like now, and the character of the cars, just how much more intense it looked and how much more exciting it looked back then compared to now.
“It’s sad. But hopefully we’re heading back in that direction.”
Stroll was asked whether he feels that Formula 1 is heading in that direction, a future which would see the sport go back to elements of its past.
Stroll rues cars “not so fun to drive”
Stroll has thrown his support behind F1 returning to cars with V10 or V8 power, but hopes for work before to make the current ruleset more manageable.
“I hear rumours about it for the next regs,” Stroll claimed, “but now we’re going to have to live with these ones for the next three or four years.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but hopefully we go back in that direction, those loud, fast, light, nimble machines that are exciting for the fans, exciting for the drivers, you really feel like you’re pushing on the limit.”
Slating the current rules, Stroll said: “I think it’s fundamentally just so flawed.
“I’m not an engineer. Maybe there’s a lot of things that can be done.
“It’s sad that we’re in this situation.”
He then delivered a scathing assessment of the cars: in their current format: “No, F1 is not so fun to drive.
“I drove other cars over the break. I tested some F3 cars, and it’s like 1,000 times more fun and better to drive, because your right foot, you get what you want.
“And even the weight of the car. Something like 550, 650 kilos is a lot nicer than 750, 800 plus kilos.
“Things like that just make cars fun to drive, and then the sound and the noise, I mean, I’m saying it, but everyone that hears a car from the V8 era, V10 era, is going like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. That’s F1’. Then you hear it now, the derating going into a corner, downshifting going into a corner with no character, no noise.”
Stroll’s declaration of support for a return to V8 or V10 power is part of a growing cry for change in F1, the momentum building towards becoming unstoppable.