Max Verstappen has revealed what he said are the “necessary minimum” changes needed to be made that will see him remain in Formula 1, amid ongoing discontent with the new regulations.
The four-time World Champion has conveyed his unhappiness with the electrified direction taken by F1 within its new technical regulations for some time.
Prior to the era taking effect, the Dutchman had already warned of the issues it may bring to the sport, and since taking to the wheel of a 50-50 hybrid-powered car, has been even more vocal.
After likening the new cars to “Formula E on steroids,” Verstappen has continuously been outspoken in his criticism, and has sought excitement from GT3 racing at the Nurburgring, in largely unprecedented extracurricular activities for a modern F1 driver.
Since the Miami Grand Prix, it has been announced that work is being processed to see the ICE-electricity split in next year’s power units to swing 60-40 in the former’s favour.
But it is such experiences in other racing that have led Verstappen, who previously confirmed his place on the 2027 grid over the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix, to pin much of his hopes on that coming to fruition.
“The thing is, I know how pure other motorsports can feel like, you know? So then when you come back to this, it’s just… not very nice,” he said in Montreal.
“I don’t want to be too negative now after a race like this [finishing third after a thrilling battle with Lewis Hamilton], but I know what it feels like to drive pure racing cars and pure overtakes, pure racing and just natural driving,”
“This is all a bit like, especially qualifying, very anti-driving, anti-racing, and that’s not what Formula 1 should be about.
“So, I really hope that next year, we can get that 60-40 because that will naturally help everything a bit.”
Max Verstappen calls for F1 to be ‘more pure’
Verstappen questioned the complexities of the new regulations, stating that many fans are naturally unaware of them to fully comprehend the style of racing, and therefore derive less pleasure from it.
“It’s way too complex, all of this,” he continued. “Most of 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.
“All these things are just such a shame that we have to deal with all these things. And, yeah, 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 necessary, the minimum necessary, to make it a bit more natural and a bit more back to normal, or at least a bit more pure racing.
“But like I said, as drivers, give us any kind of car, we’ll always race and give a good entertainment or a good show.
“Doesn’t matter, people say, ‘Oh, but look now, the show is great, the cars were fighting,’ but it has nothing to do with the car. It just needs to be more pure.”
Verstappen’s long-held views on modern F1 are far from the malcontented rantings that some might have you believe.
With other drivers, such as Lando Norris, complaining of the new era of cars, there is, without a doubt, a sense of growing unhappiness permeating across the grid.
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