Entertaining Canadian GP doesn't mean F1 rules are fine, drivers say

Formula 1 delivered another intriguing spectacle at last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, but that doesn't mean the series should be done improving its complex, work-in-progress power unit rules, Sunday's leading drivers say.

Montreal's race on the stop-start Circuit Gilles Villeneuve appeared to bring out the best in the 2026 cars as they are currently being run. The race featured plenty of overtakes, and not just triggered by the push of a button but also as the result of intense wheel-to-wheel racing. 

The lead battles between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli raised the average heart rate over at Mercedes, while Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen also said they enjoyed their duel, which Hamilton eventually came out on top of. A key factor is the 2026 cars being smaller and lighter, and therefore more nimble while the lower downforce levels allow drivers to follow each other more closely.

The energy deployment tweaks made in Miami have also delivered a step forward, as F1 tries to ease driver concerns over how they have to manage these extremely complex power units. But amid ongoing talks to make more drastic changes for 2027, Montreal's podium finishers have reiterated their desire for the cars to be driven more naturally, especially over a qualifying lap.

"I think it still continues to be a weird feeling," Hamilton said when asked by Motorsport if drivers have learned to enjoy how these cars have to be raced. "You go down the power, you open up the straight mode, and then the power dies like halfway down the straight and the RPM starts dropping. It doesn’t feel like what motorsport should be. The engine should be wringing its neck off right to the end of the straight and just pulling and pulling. That’s what they used to do in the V8 or V10 times.

"Ultimately the car is fundamentally a better design, so we can race and get close and follow each other closely, and I think that’s the best part of it. The power part, I think, is less exciting."

Race winner and championship leader Antonelli said the energy management required can still "trigger" drivers as they have to take care to keep their throttle positions and battery charge at a certain level to get the most performance over a lap.

"It still sometimes triggers you a little bit how the system works," the Italian explained. "But with the changes that were made, also the FIA giving teams a bit more allowance on system, it definitely has helped quite a bit to make things a bit easier.

"I think that the cars [are] much better than last year. You can actually follow a lot closer and that definitely creates more racing. But on the power unit side – definitely I cannot complain about my power unit because the team did an incredible job – there’s still work to do and it will be interesting to see what’s going to happen in the next couple of years, if the regulation is going to change, if they’re going to give a bit more power to the combustion."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Anadolu via Getty Images

Verstappen, who had previously said it's mentally "not doable" for him to continue in F1 unless 2027's proposed changes to increase combustion power are voted through, said Sunday's entertaining race doesn't mean the rules are suddenly fine.

"Most of the drivers, we’re the best in the world. So even if you would give us a rental car, we’ll give you a good show and we’ll race each other very hard and well," the Dutchman cautioned. "So, it has nothing to do in that sense with the rules.

"The fans don’t even know what we are dealing with while driving, what is allowed when you’re behind or when you’re the car ahead, what we have to do on a formation lap or what we have to do in an out-lap, or how much battery that we’re allowed to charge. It's such a shame that we have to deal with all these things.

"For me F1 just needs to be more pure and I really hope that what they try to do next year will go through because I think that is the minimum necessary to make it a bit more natural and a bit more back to normal."