The usually reserved Aston Martin driver did not hold back when reflecting on his experience during the enforced April break, where he sampled both GT3 and F3 cars, including making his GT3 race debut in France.
“I drove other cars over the break, I tested some F3 cars, and it’s like 1000 times more fun and better to drive because your right foot, you give what you want, and you get what you want,” he said.
“Even the weight of the car, 550-650 kilos are a lot nicer than 750-800 plus kilos.
“Things like that just make cars fun to drive.”
Stroll’s frustration is centred on the current generation of F1 machinery, which he believes has drifted too far from what he considers “proper” grand prix cars.
“All the part throttle stuff is just destroying the racing, so hopefully it is more normal to drive, and we don’t think so much about the management and the lift and coast and all this stuff,” he explained.
“But I think we’re so far away from proper F1 cars and pushing flat out, without thinking about batteries and all this stuff, it is just kind of a band-aid solution.”
The Canadian also pointed to the lack of emotion and character in modern F1 compared to previous eras, having spent time watching historic races during the break.
“We are miles off where we should be, and during the break, I was randomly watching old races and the Monaco Historic, and I heard some early 2000s Ferraris and how good they sounded and how small and nimble they were,” he said.
“I saw some onboards from the mid-2000s in the V10 era, and what it looks like versus now, you can hear the character of the cars, and just how much more intense and how much more exciting it looked back then, so it is a bit sad, but hopefully, we’re heading back in that direction again.”
He went further in his criticism of the package, even labelling aspects of it as artificial.
“Then the sound, everyone hears the sound of the V8, V10 era and is going like: ‘Wow, that is amazing, that is F1 when you hear it’ and now, de-rating into a corner, I’m downshifting going into a corner with no character or no noise.
“It is fake.”
Despite recent tweaks aimed at improving drivability, Stroll is sceptical meaningful gains will be made under the current rules cycle.
“I think it is so fundamentally flawed, but I’m not an engineer, but it is just sad that we’re in this situation now, and I don’t have all the answers,” he admitted.
“I hear rumours about it for the next regs, but now we’re going to have to live with these ones for the next three, or four years.”
Stroll also highlighted what he sees as a disconnect between the sport’s leadership and those behind the wheel.
“F1 is a business, and they want to protect their business and make it look good, and we’re drivers, and we know what it feels like to drive good cars,” he said.
“So there are two different perspectives on it, and people are watching the sport no matter what, and watching Netflix and turning on Formula 1, and so F1 is happy.
“But the drivers, the fans, the people that really know about racing, who know what it was like before, and the drivers who know what it is really like to drive really good, proper cars, there is no hiding behind the fact that right now, it is not as good as it can be.”
While his criticism was unusually blunt, Stroll insisted he remained committed to Aston Martin’s long-term project despite a difficult start to the new regulations era.
“No, because I still have a lot of belief in this project, and I think the project is so far from our potential,” he said when asked if he was planning on walking away from the sport.
“And two, three years’ time, I’m sitting on the sofa and I’m watching two green cars at the front of the field, and I’m not a part of it, it will bother me.
“So yeah, I want to be a part of that.”
Stroll remains the only driver in 2026 yet to finish a full race distance, highlighting Aston Martin’s troubled start under the new regulations and Honda power unit.
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