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honestly, the regs are annoying, the teams are annoying, sports journalists are annoying, f1 in general is annoying right now…i say, put the tax-evading millionaires in jail for the rest of the season and let kimi antonelli, arvid lindblad and doriane pin drive for the wdc
Verstappen and Red Bull impressed the rest of the paddock with their pace and energy deployment, but the Dutchman says he was more concerned with what the new generation of cars is like to drive, with an even bigger focus on energy management.
"To drive [they are] not a lot of fun, to be honest," he said. "I would say the right word is management. It's not very Formula 1-like. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids. But the rules are the same for everyone, so you have to deal with that.
"As a pure driver, I enjoy driving flat out and at the moment, you cannot drive like that. There's a lot going on. A lot of what you do as a driver, in terms of inputs, has a massive effect on the energy side of things. For me, that's just not Formula 1. Maybe it's then better to drive Formula E, right? Because that's all about energy, efficiency and management. "We're energy poor. I just want normal driving, just how it should be without having to [say]: 'Oh, if I brake a bit longer or less or more, or one gear up or down.' It so heavily impacts the performance on the straights. Plus, the grip at the moment is quite low with these tyres and the car configuration. It is a big step back to how it was."
He added: "Honestly, the proportion of the car looks good, I think. That's not the problem. It's just everything else that is a bit, for me, anti-racing.
"Probably people will not be happy with me saying this right now. But I am outspoken and why am I not allowed to say what I think of my race car? I can't help that.
"I mean, I didn't write the regulation. If it was, I think, up to non-political aspects of making a regulation, I think, anyway, the car would have probably have looked very different."
Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028 and, having grown frustrated by various aspects of F1 in recent years including the rules direction, has openly talked about the prospect of walking away from F1 at that point.
"A winning car for me doesn't matter," said Verstappen of whether Red Bull winning under these rules would help his enjoyment. "It needs to be fun to drive as well, at this stage of my career.
"I am course also exploring other things outside of Formula 1 to have fun at. I know that we're stuck with this regulation for quite a while. So, yeah, let's see."
Verstappen did say it pained him to be so frank in his views out of respect for the work his team and the power unit division at Red Bull Powertrains had done, with both the car and engine appearing to be in good shape so far - the brand-new engine department even defying expectations.
"On the other hand, I also know how much work has been going on in the background," he added. "Also from the engine side, for the guys. So, it's not always the nicest thing to say. But I also want to be realistic as a driver, the feeling.
"I also know what is at stake with the team; our own engine and seeing the excitement of the people. Of course, when I sit in the car, I will always give it my very best. They know that. Excitement level is not so high to drive."
EXPLAINING THE REGULATION CHANGES
QUALIFYING: The FIA is working to minimise energy harvesting during flying laps. The permitted amount of recharge has been reduced from 8MJ to 7MJ to reduce both the amount of recovered energy and time to recover said energy.
Super-clipping has also been increased from 250 to 350 kW — these new amendments are to ensure less time is spent harvesting energy.
RACE: Changes have been made to in-race energy deployment after Bearman’s crash during the Japanese Grand Prix. Boost mode is capped at 150kW, and full power (350kW) will only be used at designated zones, such as acceleration after turning. For the rest of the circuit, a maximum of 250 kW will be allowed. These changes were made to reduce sudden speed differentials between cars that could lead to a crash.
WET WEATHER CONDITIONS: Tyre blanket temperatures will be increased to improve tyre performance and grip on a wet track. Energy deployment will also be reduced to improve control. A new rear light system has been made to improve visibility in poor weather.
RACE STARTS: There have been changes made to prevent cars starting with low battery levels. If a car has low acceleration, the MGU-K will deploy automatically. Flashing rear lights warn other drivers of a car with a slow start.
So are these energy and battery things really like Mario kart power ups or am I just lost still
hey, so I haven’t moved on about what happened during quali
Sure it was a single yellow flag at first so all George needed to do was lift, but that single yellow was turned to a double yellow seconds later. Drivers should know that if you see a crash, you have to slow down. Maybe how the rules are written it was technically “OK” but this is setting an extremely dangerous precedent.
Genuinely, during qualifying I believe that if someone crashes it should be red flagged. during quali drivers are pushing their cars to the absolute limit and going as fast as they possibly can, what if they were to lose control of their car and then hit a car that was already crashed going at full speed? Cause I believe George maybe wouldn’t have lifted so little if that wasn’t his last chance at a lap. if they said “red flag the session you’ll get one more chance at a lap once we come back” I don’t think he would’ve done that. And unfortunately, I believe it will take a flag/risking a penalty for some drivers to think about the dangerous possibilities their driving could cause.
but idk this morning was crazy, and I think out of principle his lap should not have counted but alas here we are.
As I am fairly new to F1, I didn't understand much the impact of the regs change.
I heard a lot of people clowning on Max for constantly dissing the new regs. I wasn't sure where "the truth" was...
Well after the Japan GP, yeah, fuck these regs! More specifically the super clipping.
Ollie crashing with a 50G impact because of super clipping is insane. Having almost 100 km/h speed difference is stupidly dangerous. Luckily he got out of this situation without even a broken bone, but the next one to crash doesn't have to be this lucky.
coming over from the agender George fic (forgive me for forgetting the title it's saved in my brain as the Agender George fic, All Along[?])
But I wanted to ask you how you feel about the current regulations! bc I know a lot of fans really don't enjoy the artificiallity of them (me included ngl) but that's different for everyone,
(also I am a Max fan First and foremost so I'm not really feeling the joy rn :[ )
and I wanted to see what it is like for a GR fan!
I felt it was more appropriate to ask over here rather than in a comment on ao3 <333
omg hii!!! first of all thank u for the ask, and i hope u have been enjoying the bigender george au – and you got the name right!!! its all along :D
now onto ur question:
i do feel like it's very hard to make a very formulated opinion about the new regs specially because they are only three races old. i can see your point about them feeling more artificial, and i don't even necessarily disagree, but let's take a few instances as example:
on the one side, you have lewis (who has lived through more regulations out of anyone on the grid beside alonso) saying that he hasn’t had as much fun as he had battling charles in the chinese gp in a long while.
on the other side, you have drivers like lando and max and, lets face it, a good chunk of the grid (they somehow even got me pitying lance stroll of all people) saying how miserable it is to drive the cars.
my personal stance on it is that for now, the whole battery ordeal is a little bit insufferable, for lack of a better word. but i do think that will change! lets take the mclarens today, for instance. its obvious how much their start and overall pace has improved today and its only the third race, and i think we'll be seeing a lot of developments being done to all the teams all throughout this season that will make huuuuge impacts from one race to another. its almost as if the entire 2026's season, or at least until summer break, is just an incredibly extended testing period for the teams to figure out how to make their cars work around these big changes...
basically, what im trying to say is that we all should give it some grace. i think the new regs have the potential to make f1 even more enjoyable to watch, but i think that will take time and adjusting and yes, a lot of adapting too – from both the teams and the FIA. lets at least give it half a season before we all write it the worst thing that has ever happened to the sport.
now onto my being a george fan and my stance on all that's going on:
im not having the greatest of times either, tbh djlshdksjdskkd. like, today was a very good example of how nervewrecking its been...
ive been a gr fan ever since i started watching f1 and its all been chill before, but now that he's got an actual shot at winning the championship i am positively freaking out every time i watch a race. its awful. idk how the papaya fans survived last year...
ideally, i would've absolutely loved for george to have a 2023 max season of his own, but that does not seem to be in the cards for me :(
all that to say that its not bc i'm a 63 all the way through that i have been enjoying the new regs very much either. but, i have hopes for it!!! (and for george russell wdc too hopefully 🤞)
and, as of max, i am also heartbroken that his car has been shit. my dream scenario for this year was actually him and george fighting for wdc.
i actually have a theory that bc this is the first year that horner hasnt been involved in the development of the car, this has impacted the balance of how much the car is catered to the driver vs. how much the driver has to adapt to the car, as i feel for the previous years the car has been mostly designed around max's driving style and therefore undriveable to anyone else. still, i miss watching how much of an absolute beast max was driving that car. but thats all a topic for another post...
