Lance Stroll didn’t bother dressing it up in Barcelona: if Formula 1 gave him a vote, he’d bin the 2026 power-unit philosophy and go back to V8s as soon as next season.
It’s not a new sentiment in the paddock, but Stroll’s bluntness cut through because it landed right as the FIA formally signed off a course correction for 2027 and 2028 — an acknowledgement, in effect, that the series has spent the first chunk of this rules cycle chasing its own tail on the same issue everyone could see coming. Too much electrical dependence, not enough usable engine at the business end of the straight, and too much “driving to manage the system” rather than driving the car.
“I think it would be better without any batteries, without any electrical component, but it’s in the right direction for sure,” Stroll said in Barcelona. He accepted, with a shrug, the reality that drivers don’t set the regulations — but he didn’t hide his view of where this was always heading.
That frustration is rooted in how the 2026 concept feels from the cockpit. The sport has taken criticism for the way the power delivery shapes the lap: cars running out of deployment toward the end of long straights and the general sense that the driver is constantly negotiating the energy system instead of attacking. Stroll went right at the core of it: weight, regeneration, and habits drivers don’t naturally want.
“Just anything that adds weight, which is the battery, all the regen, and how you have to drive with the battery, I’m not used to,” he said. “I mean, it’s just not it.”
The key point here isn’t that Stroll misses the noise or the romance — it’s that he’s describing a driving style the regulations have effectively baked in. The modern F1 driver will always manage tyres and tools, but there’s a line between strategic compromise and a lap that feels like it’s been pre-edited by software. When he says “it’s still the same philosophy,” that’s the sting: tweaks can make it less painful, but they don’t change what the car is asking the driver to do.
That’s why the FIA’s latest adjustment matters, even if it won’t satisfy purists. Ratified by the World Motor Sport Council after being agreed through the F1 Commission and the Power Unit Advisory Committee earlier in June, the plan is to swing some influence back toward the internal combustion engine.
From 2027, the split will move to roughly 58-42 in favour of the internal combustion engine over the Energy Recovery System element, before shifting again to a 60-40 split in 2028. In other words: more of the “real” engine, a little less of the dependency on harvesting and deployment to make the lap work.
There have already been smaller, immediate steps aimed at improving what drivers are feeling. The maximum recharge limit over a lap has been reduced at certain circuits to encourage more flat-out qualifying, and peak “superclipp” power has been increased to cut down the time drivers spend having to nurse the battery back into the window.
Stroll’s read on those in-season tweaks was tellingly lukewarm. Helpful, yes — transformative, no.
“Very minor adjustments,” he said. “If you have a lift and you go back on throttle and not using as much energy and stuff like that. Sure, it’s better, but it’s still the same philosophy.”
There’s a wider political undercurrent to all of this, too. When the FIA is talking about “balance” — innovation, sustainability, performance, fan appeal — it’s also talking about keeping the grid aligned. The 2026 engine regulations were always going to be a tightrope: bring in new manufacturers, meet sustainability targets, keep performance credible, and make sure the racing doesn’t look like it’s happening in slow motion at the end of every straight.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has also made his own preferences clear, expressing that he’d like to see a return to naturally aspirated V8s in a future regulation set, with a smaller electrical component. That doesn’t mean it’s imminent, but it does change the tone. When the president is openly floating the idea, it signals that the conversation isn’t limited to fine-tuning what exists — it’s about what F1 wants the next decade to sound and feel like.
“Together we are exploring the future direction of the championship and considering how the sport can balance innovation, sustainability, performance and fan appeal in the years ahead,” Ben Sulayem said after the latest changes were ratified, adding that talks around V8 concepts powered by sustainable fuels show “the willingness of all parties to engage in shaping the next chapter of the sport.”
Stroll, though, is speaking from a simpler place: what makes a Formula 1 car enjoyable to drive — and, by extension, what makes it compelling to watch. He’s hardly alone in thinking the sport can be too clever for its own good when it starts legislating the lap into a series of energy compromises.
For now, the direction is set. The 2026 era will continue, and the sport will attempt to sand down the sharpest edges with a heavier lean back toward internal combustion through 2027 and 2028. But Stroll’s comments were a reminder that beneath the governance language and technical ratios, this debate is still about a basic question F1 never quite escapes: how much engineering complexity is worth it if the driver’s left feeling like the car is doing the negotiating for him?
