Lewis Hamilton has lit a slow-burning fuse under the FIA's regulation process, demanding that Formula 1 drivers be given a formal "seat at the table" alongside teams, manufacturers and the governing body when the next big rule rewrite is being drafted.
The seven-time world champion made his pitch ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, with the GPDA pushing for a more structured input mechanism after months of public driver complaints about the 2026 rules. Hamilton's framing was unusually pointed.
"All the drivers we do work together, we all meet — but the fact is we don't have a seat at the table," he said. "We're not stakeholders — we don't have a seat at the table currently, which I think needs to change."
Hamilton was at pains to stress that he is not pitching the drivers as a hostile bloc. He wants the FIA and the commercial rights holder to view them as a co-development resource rather than a publicity-relations problem.
"You guys should come and speak to us and collaborate with us, we don't want to be slagging off the Pirelli tyres," Hamilton said. "Speak to us, we'll work hand in hand, we can work together to approach the FIA so we can get a better product."
The broader frustration, in Hamilton's telling, is one of pace. "We're here to work with you," he said. "We don't want to be slating our sport. We want the sport to succeed," before adding pointedly that under the current arrangement "you keep doing it and it's like small baby steps each time."
"We're the ones who have to drive," Russell said, "but equally we are quite selfish as well as drivers. What may be the best and coolest and fastest cars for us to drive may not be the most exciting from a racing perspective."
Even so, Russell believes the trade-off is now firmly worth it. "I think we should be involved, we should help shape it," he said, while volunteering that recent racing has been "exciting" and that "the next set is going to be really quite amazing."
Pierre Gasly, who has been one of the more constructive voices inside the GPDA in recent months, said the dialogue with the FIA has actually improved sharply during the early rounds of the 2026 season.
"Overall, it's the best communications we've had for a while," the Alpine driver said. "It's been very constructive."
Max Verstappen, who has been the loudest critical voice on the 2026 power-unit regulations, was characteristically brief but unambiguous on the principle.
"I hope [we can have] more and more [involvement]," the four-time world champion said.
The practical question now is what "a seat at the table" actually means. The FIA's technical and sporting working groups are dominated by team-nominated engineers and commercial-rights representatives, with driver input arriving largely through the GPDA's letters and post-race press conferences. Hamilton wants that flipped, with drivers brought in early enough to shape concepts rather than to react to them. With another major regulation cycle looming around the FIA's planned V8 era at the end of the decade, the timing of the request is no accident.
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*Originally published on [News Formula 1](https://newsformula.one/article/hamilton-drivers-seat-at-the-table-fia-rules-russell-gasly). Visit for full coverage.*