MIAMI — Lewis Hamilton has said he and his fellow Formula 1 drivers deserve a “seat at the table” in future decisions about rule changes the sport might enact going forward.
F1’s 2026 season has started under a cloud of controversy due to the sport’s new regulations, which have been widely criticized by the sport’s existing drivers.
The sport’s new V6 hybrid turbo engines have placed an unprecedented focus on electrification, and that has made generating and then utilizing battery power more important than ever.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen has called the new formula “anti-racing,” likened the new cars to Mario Kart and has suggested he dislikes the new cars so much it might be enough to make him quit. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has rechristened the sport’s new era “the battery world championship.”
The new rules package was agreed on by the sport’s major stakeholders — the teams, Formula 1, the governing FIA, existing manufacturers and new ones such as Audi — which was convinced to join in 2026 on the promise of road relevant hybrid engines — but drivers had no say.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, seven-time champion Hamilton, the sport’s most decorated driver, said that needs to change.
“All the drivers, we do work together, we all meet — but the fact is we don’t have a seat at the table,” Hamilton said. “We do engage with the FIA and F1; F1’s more often a little bit more responsive.
“But being that we’re not stakeholders — we don’t have a seat at the table currently, which I think needs to change. I say to them, when I was doing the Pirelli [tire] test, ‘You guys should come and speak to us and collaborate with us, we don’t want to be slagging off the Pirelli tires, we know you can build a good product.’
“But their feedback will be coming from people who have never driven a car before. Speak to us, we’ll work hand in hand, we can work together to approach the FIA so we can get a better product. And the same with F1: ‘We’re here to work with you. We don’t want to be slating our sport. We want the sport to succeed, and so we need to be working together.’
“But it’s like a [broken] record — you keep doing it, and it’s like small baby steps each time. But I have no doubt [we are aligned].”
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Four-time world champion Verstappen echoed Hamilton’s sentiment.
Asked if drivers should be listened to more often, Verstappen said: “I hope more and more. I’m sure that we can have really good input about that. I think if we would have had that five, maybe a bit before, like five, six years ago, then we probably wouldn’t have been in the state that we are in now.”
The drivers’ main collective voice is the long-running Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), but it has usually acted as a conventional union, advocating for driver matters such as safety and clarity over racing rules rather than a stakeholder with any legitimate decision-making power.
The GPDA has a WhatsApp group chat, involving all the drivers, that has been the subject of paddock intrigue.
The current grid of drivers has become increasingly unified in its views on the direction of the sport, something reigning world champion Lando Norris also alluded to Thursday.
“Honestly, I think at the minute, all the drivers want the same thing,” Norris said. “From first place to last place, we all want the same thing.
“We all just want to go flat-out, race closely, and at the same time, that’s the show that the fans want. I think having a seat at the table is something we’ve spoken about as a GPDA. We’re all very aligned with that.
“Sometimes, I think we have to accept as drivers we’re very blindsided. Maybe the externals from a business side of things, [the] teams, how teams work, how all of that’s organized.
“We have to accept that we’re maybe not always completely correct, but I think the majority of things that we think of us as drivers and how we want for the sport is a win-win.
“It’s better for us, and it’s better for the fans, and that’s our side of things. It’s just how some of those things are done are not always able to be easily implemented because of how the sport is as a whole, and money and cost of things and all that. Regulations, rules, all of that.
“It’s completely correct. It’s something that we want. It’s what they have in a lot of other sports. It’s more of just a louder voice at times rather than drivers on this, why are you not doing it?
“It’s just a bit more of a say in some things and persuasion in directions into the future. We just can’t voice our opinion as much as what we would like, but that’s something we’re working on as a collection.”
F1 has made a series of minor tweaks to the maligned rules set for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, but it is not expected to create a major change from the opening three races of the year.
