Lance Stroll defended a shift in how Formula 1 engines deliver power to the driver. For the Canadian, the current system introduced in 2026 has made the races more artificial and reduced the joy of driving the cars.
The new regulation reduced the contribution of the internal combustion engine (ICE) to power generation from roughly 80% down to 50%. The other half is now provided by the battery, but the driver cannot freely decide when or how this energy is used.
The management is handled by on-board computers that learn from the laps completed. Sudden changes in grip or increases in power demand can influence how energy is deployed. Additionally, drivers must constantly recharge the batteries, creating a switching effect in overtakes, with one car attacking while the other recharges energy.
“I’ve spoken about this before, and it’s a pity that we’ve reached regulations where we’re doing all these back-and-forth races. We need to manage the battery, then there is confusion in the system and it’s not delivering the power we expect,” he said.
“So we make an overtake and then we need to recharge for two laps, or something like that, and I think a real race should be: you press the accelerator to obtain a certain amount of power, and that’s what you receive. If you set 50% power, you receive 50% power, and if you set 100%, you receive 100%. That’s how I think it should be.”
“But now we’ve arrived at these not-so-pleasant regulations, so I hope it improves. I think that unless we move to naturally aspirated engines, or simpler power units that bring a solution to the problems we’re facing,” he added.
Stroll acknowledged that each generation of car requires different adaptations from the drivers, but he stated that the current characteristics have made driving less enjoyable.
“[The driving approach] doesn’t change in the car; any car you’re driving presents different things to think about. So it’s just one more thing to think about, but it’s not fun. It’s not fun to drive cars that lose power at the end of a straight the way these cars do, as these regulations dictate, and the downforce we lose in the corners compared with previous years just to sustain these power units. It’s simply not as fun as it used to be,” he concluded.
