Lance Stroll defended a change in the way Formula 1 engines deliver power to the driver. For the Canadian, the current system introduced in 2026 has made the battles more artificial and reduced the pleasure of driving the cars.
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The new regulations reduced the participation of the internal combustion engine, the ICE, in power generation, from approximately 80% to 50%. The other half is now provided by the battery, but the driver cannot freely determine when and how this energy will be used.
The management is done by onboard computers that learn from the laps completed. Sudden changes in grip or increases in power demand can influence how the energy is made available. Additionally, drivers need to constantly recharge the batteries, creating an alternating effect in overtaking, with one car attacking while the other recovers energy.
“I’ve already talked about this, and it’s a shame we’ve come to regulations where we’re doing all these back-and-forth races. We need to manage the battery, then there’s confusion in the system and it’s not delivering the power we expect,” he said.
“So we make an overtake and then need to recharge for two laps, or things like that, and I think a real race should be: you press the accelerator to get a certain amount of power, and that’s what you get. If you put in 50% power, you get 50% power, and if you put in 100%, you get 100%. That’s how I think it should be.”
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“But now we have these not-so-pleasant regulations, so I hope it improves. I think, unless we switch to naturally aspirated engines, or simpler power units that bring a solution to the problems we are facing,” he added.
Stroll acknowledged that each generation of car requires different adaptations from drivers, but stated that the current characteristics have made driving less enjoyable.
“[The driving approach] doesn’t change in the car; any car you’re driving offers different things to think about. So this is 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 corners compared to previous years just to sustain these power units. It’s simply not as fun as it used to be,” he concluded.
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