Lance Stroll merciless in his criticism of the 2026 regulations: "We are very far from the real F1."

Have a Lance stroll Being so outspoken before a Grand Prix is ​​hardly typical. But when the Canadian has something to say, he doesn't hold back and can be quite verbose. Before the Miami Grand Prix, the driver Aston Martin clearly had things to say about the 2026 regulations… and not all of them good.

"Everything related to gas management is destroying the race," Lance Stroll began. "So we hope it will be more natural to drive and that we won't have to think so much about management, lifting off the accelerator, all that. But I think we're very far from the real thing." F1"Being able to push it to the limit without worrying about batteries and everything else — it's just a band-aid on a wound."he continued during a briefing with the media on site, referring to the regulatory changes introduced in Florida.

During the enforced April break, number 18 took the opportunity to make his GT World Challenge debut with an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entered by the Belgian team Comtoyou Racing at the 6 Hours of Le Castellet. While the result wasn't convincing (48th), due in particular to more than eight minutes of penalties accumulated by the trio he formed with Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya, Lance Stroll was able to escape his daily life as a Formula 1 driver for a weekend. Especially since his life hasn't been all sunshine and roses since the start of the year, with the Aston Martin suffering from the woes of a faulty Honda engine.

"I think it's fundamentally flawed."

So, to see high-performing F1 cars with exhilarating sounds, the 27-year-old driver watched the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, which gave him a rather discouraging perspective on the generation of single-seaters he is about to encounter again in Miami this weekend. "We are very far from where we should be." he fumes. “During the break, I was watching old races at random and the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. I watched onboard footage from the mid-2000s, the V10 era, and compared it to now. You could hear the character of the cars; it was so much more intense, so much more exciting. It's a bit sad, but we hope we're heading back in that direction.”

"I think it's fundamentally flawed — I'm not an engineer, but it's sad to be in this situation, and I don't have all the answers." he continued, referring to the 2026 regulations. “I drove other cars during the break, I tested some F3And it's a thousand times more fun and enjoyable to drive. […] F1 is a business; it wants to protect its business and present it in the best possible light. And we drivers know what it's like to drive really good cars. So these are two different perspectives. People watch the sport no matter what, watch Netflix, and turn on the TV to watch F1—so F1 is happy. But the drivers, the fans, the people who really know racing, who know what it was like before, and the drivers who know what it's like to drive really good cars—nobody can deny that, right now, it's not as good as it could be.”

A real bombshell dropped by Stefano Domenicali, who just a few days ago insisted there was no problem with the current regulations. The dissenting voice of Lance Stroll, combined with that of a Max Verstappen Still not convinced, could harm the analysis of the Formula One Management boss.