Drivers get busy before the officials do
GPDA chairman Alexander Wurz says Formula 1 drivers are already deep in the weeds over the sport’s technical future, with the group WhatsApp chat apparently working overtime. Not for the first time, the drivers have managed to become highly animated just as the rulemakers are preparing to meet.
During the April shutdown, talks are expected between Formula 1, the FIA, the drivers, the teams and the power unit manufacturers about possible changes to the energy management demands built into the new power units. Those discussions follow several issues across the opening three races, which have raised concerns about how the system will work in practice.
Carlos Sainz, who serves as a director on the drivers’ trade union body, was especially vocal after Oliver Bearman’s heavy accident in the Japanese Grand Prix. Sainz argued that the FIA needs to pay closer attention to drivers’ feedback when reshaping the regulations. A novel idea in motorsport, admittedly: asking the people who actually drive the cars what might happen if the rules meet reality.
Wurz, a former F1 driver himself, said the drivers are full of suggestions and are keen to push their case before the talks begin.
"In that famous WhatsApp group, which we set up in 2015 or 2016, it's really going off now, it's exploding," Wurz told the Lift and Roast podcast.
"I've rarely seen it so active. That group is overflowing with emotions, possible solutions, technical proposals and ideas on how to still convince everyone that the drivers should be listened to.
"That's super, and that's beautiful.
"Of course, I can't share any of that - I don't. I'm not crossing the line of my role as GPDA director right now. What is discussed there stays there.
"But the beautiful thing, and my conclusion, is: the drivers are so emotional and purely interested in the product, that politics doesn't really matter to them."
The message from Wurz is clear enough. The drivers are engaged, opinionated and very much in motion, while the paperwork and formal meetings are still catching up. Whether that energy turns into meaningful changes to the 2026 regulations is what the upcoming talks are supposed to settle.
