Stroll Slams 2026 F1 Cars as “Miles Off” the Mark

Stroll Slams 2026 F1 Cars as “Miles Off” the MarkNurPhoto - Getty Images

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll says he had “a thousand times” more fun testing an F3 car than driving 2026-spec F1 machinery, and believes the sport is “miles off” where it should be.

Formula 1’s new regulations have divided opinion owing to the manner in which the cars have to be driven, in order to maximize the potential of the new power units.

Stroll’s predicament has been exacerbated by the ongoing struggles of the Aston Martin-Honda package, which has been several seconds off the pace of the front-runners so far in 2026, as well as suffering from reliability woes.

But Stroll has launched a broadside against the current rules, having spent the recent five-week break undertaking other activities, including competing in a GT race at Paul Ricard, testing F3 machinery as a way of staying sharp, as well as stumbling across clips of old F1 cars.

“I think we’re miles off of where we should be,” Stroll said. “I was like randomly watching old races and stuff, and I had the Monaco Historic [event] on the TV and I heard some cars from the early 2000s and how good they sounded, and how small and nimble [they were]. Even mid-2000s in the V8 or V10 era, and then what it looks like versus now, it came up on my phone and stuff, and I was watching it, and it’s just… you hear what it’s like now, and the character of the cars, and just how much more intense it looked, and how much more exciting it looked back then compared to now, I think that, yeah, it’s sad, but hopefully we’re heading back in that direction.”

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Stroll reckons that, despite tweaks to the regulations from this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, the ruleset is “fundamentally just so flawed” and quipped that “it’s sad that we’re in this situation.”

“No, F1’s not so fun to drive, I drove other cars over the break, I tested some F3 cars, and it’s like a thousand times more fun and better to drive, because you have, you know, your right foot, you get what you want. Even the weight of the car, something 550, 650 kilos is still 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 for everyone that hears a car from the V8 era, V10 era, it’s more like, ‘wow, that’s amazing,’ you know, that’s F1, and you hear it now, and the derating going into a corner, downshifting going into a corner with no character, and the noise…”