Source :- THE AGE NEWS
By Andy Enright
Max Verstappen is rarely short of an unvarnished opinion, but even by his standards he’s been shockingly blunt about the all-new 2026 Formula 1 cars. In short, he hates them.
With a new powertrain that relies more on electric energy, narrower tyres, more complex aerodynamic rules and a requirement for the driver to carefully manage energy deployment, the cars are a long way from the sort of pure racing Verstappen adores.
Max Verstappen won the F1 grand prix in Abu Dhabi, but has doubts about new rules. Credit: Getty Images
It could still be an intriguing season for spectators, but for Max? Well, here are five things he’s not so thrilled about:
1. The cars are energy-starved
This is the key complaint. The 2026 F1 car requires careful energy management, with the driver having to “harvest” a lot more electrical energy under braking to feed the new vehicles’ larger batteries.
In circuits with fewer braking opportunities, they are required to do what’s known as “superclipping”, which means instead of using the engine to drive the wheels, they use it to charge the battery – running it as a kind of electrical generator.
The drivers then must choose their moments to deploy that electrical assistance during the lap. Verstappen hates anything that detracts from flat-out driving.
He’s a purist and this rule set casts him in the role of an energy manager as much as a driver.
“As a pure driver, I enjoy driving flat-out,” Verstappen said. “And at the moment, you cannot drive like that. 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,” he told the BBC.
“Sorry, but that belongs in Formula E.”
2. They’re no fun to drive
“For me personally, it’s not so enjoyable,” said Verstappen of the way the current Red Bull car drives.
“The feeling in real life is the same as in the simulator,” he claimed. “Sometimes certain things feel a bit better or worse in the simulator, but this time it was actually the same,” he said.
“Last year at one point I deliberately said that I didn’t want to drive it in the simulator any more. It felt so bad compared to last year, so I thought ‘You know what, I’ll just focus on last year’s car in the sim, and we’ll see about the rest this year’. It’s just not good.”
He even went as far as to say that the broadly disliked outgoing ground-effect cars of the past four seasons were “still 10 times better than this”.
3. The change is making him look at other race series
“We’re still racing in Formula 1 and that’s great, but once you’ve already won and achieved everything, then it’s not really necessary [to stay around] any more,” he said, according to Autosport.
“There are a lot of other nice things you can do, and I’m definitely going to do those – maybe already this year and also in the coming years.
“This certainly doesn’t help to keep going for a very long time.”
Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing says the new cars just won’t be as fun to drive.Credit: Getty Images
It’s no great secret that Verstappen is looking at other racing series. His contract with Red Bull extends through to 2028, but he has negotiated several break clauses into it, including one where he has the option to leave if he’s not one of the top two drivers after half the season.
His undercover test session at the Nürburgring in May 2025 under the pseudonym Franz Hermann (and in a Ferrari, no less) has already become the stuff of legend and hinted at an entry into the 24 Hours event there. Verstappen’s also recently been eyeing an entry at Le Mans in partnership with fellow Red Bull world champ Sebastian Vettel.
It’s easy to see how he could be attracted to rawer, more visceral forms of racing if the current F1 cars don’t satisfy the requirement for wheel-to-wheel racing where the best driver wins.
4. The tech rules make racing chaotic
For Verstappen, the best form of racing is a meritocratic one where the most talented driver walks away with the silverware. Max backs himself.
The current rule set introduces all manner of curveballs that inject an unwelcome element of chaos, effectively allowing drivers to simply hit a button on the steering wheel to unleash additional electrical power.
This includes the new-for-2026 Overtake Mode, which uses electrical boost in place of the old Drag Reduction System. There’s also a setting called Straight Mode, which opens the front and rear wings on the straight, instantly altering the aerodynamic balance of the cars.
When asked about Overtake Mode, Verstappen told RacingNews365: “I don’t know how effective [it] will be … maybe we need some bananas and a red shell,” referencing the Mario Kart video game series.
Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen (obscured) and Lando Norris after the F1 season finale last year.Credit: Getty Images
5. His Red Bull may not be the quickest
While Verstappen relied on a bit of external help to claim the 2021 crown against a quicker Mercedes-AMG car, the next three championship wins saw him in undoubtedly the quickest car on the grid for most of the time.
McLaren flipped that script in the later stages of 2024 and were manifestly superior in 2025, but Verstappen still dragged Red Bull to within two points of the drivers’ championship.
Given that McLaren “gifted” eventual winner Lando Norris three points by forcing a positional swap with Oscar Piastri at Monza after a botched pit stop, Max very nearly did the impossible last year after coming back from a more than 100-point deficit.
While it’s clearly too early to make any definitive statements on the pace of this year’s crop of cars, testing in Bahrain would seem to suggest that Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari have the edge, with Red Bull mixing it with McLaren just a step behind.
That may well change come lights-out in Melbourne, but it’s a fact that any race car is easier to love when it’s winning.
Should Max consistently miss out on podiums in the Red Bull, expect the complaints to escalate.
“I just want normal driving,” he told The Race. “How it should be, without having to [think] ‘Ooh, if I brake a bit longer, or less, or more, or one gear up or down’, stuff like that, that it so heavily impacts the performance on the straights.
“Plus the grip, I think at the moment, is quite low with these tyres and the car configuration.
“It is, I would say a big step back to how it was.”
