{"id":275505,"date":"2025-07-19T19:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T19:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/275505\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T19:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T19:35:12","slug":"lance-stroll-slams-sad-f1-2026-regulations-that-drivers-wont-criticise-for-political-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/275505\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Stroll slams \u2018sad\u2019 F1 2026 regulations that drivers won\u2019t criticise for \u2018political reasons\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lance Stroll<\/a> has criticised the 2026 Formula 1<\/a> regulations as \u201csad\u201d as he expressed how he feels many drivers stay silent about their true feelings due to political pressures.<\/p>\n

The Canadian driver isn\u2019t the first to voice concerns over the upcoming rules reset, with Charles Leclerc<\/a> expressing his views at the Red Bull Ring.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Austria, the Ferrari driver proclaimed he was \u201cnot a fan\u201d<\/a> of how the car may feel and how he thinks it will be \u201cless enjoyable for drivers to drive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Williams Team Principal James Vowles, however, offered a more optimistic view<\/a>, highlighting the significant potential of the 2026 regulations and the opportunities they present for teams.<\/p>\n

Concerns about next year\u2019s cars stem from the greater reliance on battery power, with reduced downforce and drag cuts implemented to prevent drivers from running out of energy.<\/p>\n

As a result, some drivers have come away disappointed after getting their first taste of the early development cars on the simulator.<\/p>\n

One of those drivers is Stroll, who expressed his frustration with the new regulations and their impact on racing ahead of the British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if the regs are so exciting,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week<\/strong>. I think, yeah, I don\u2019t know\u2026a bit sad if you ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his first experience with the 2026 car on the simulator, Stroll added: \u201cI think it\u2019s a bit of a shame F1 is just taking that path of electric energy and we\u2019ve had to shut all the downforce off the cars to support the battery power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would just be fun to see some light, nimble, fast cars with a lot of downforce and just simplify the whole thing a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLess so of an energy, battery, championship science project and more of just a Formula 1 racing championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LanceLance Stroll questions upcoming F1 era and says others are afraid to speak out<\/p>\n

Stroll hits out at F1\u2019s direction for 2026 and hints at driver silence<\/p>\n

Stroll explained how much of next year\u2019s driving will focus on energy management, questioning if that\u2019s really racing. <\/p>\n

He also suggested that many drivers agree with his view but can\u2019t speak out due to political reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s racing, it\u2019s going to be the same for everyone next year \u2013 it\u2019s all going to be about who can do that best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure whoever is doing that best is going to love the new regs \u2013 that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of the direction, I mean, if you have a fast car and we\u2019re competitive and we\u2019re doing better than everyone else, that\u2019s when you\u2019ve got nothing to complain about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t love the idea of the regs, though. A lot of the drivers can agree on that. Maybe some of them can\u2019t talk about it for political reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s exciting to think about cars that can scream a little bit louder, be a bit lighter and just not depend on, not focus so much on that energy like battery, powertrain that\u2019s not very racey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Charles Leclerc has admitted the 2026 car is \u201cless attractive\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc calls 2026 regs direction \u2018less attractive\u2019 for drivers<\/p>\n

Following up on his earlier criticism, Leclerc was asked how challenging it is to switch between driving the 2026 car on the simulator and racing the current car.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so different that for sure I don\u2019t confuse which car I\u2019m driving,\u201d the Monegasque explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put back into context my comments I did, it wasn\u2019t really specific to our team, which I\u2019ve seen in headlines saying we\u2019re struggling or whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just meaning that the new direction for us drivers is a little bit less attractive and a little bit less nice to drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the way it is, I still find the motivation and the challenge of making these new regs as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re competitive I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll start to like it a lot more, but if not, I\u2019ll probably hate it a lot, but I hope it won\u2019t be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013<\/strong> Lance Stroll: Aston Martin 2025 F1 car \u2018worst piece of s**t\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0driven\u2019\u00a0in British GP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lance Stroll has criticised the 2026 Formula 1 regulations as \u201csad\u201d as he expressed how he feels many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[18922,4199,707,4200,9258,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-275505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-astonmartin","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-lance-stroll","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114881581864536085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}