Max Verstappen has overstepped the mark with his latest jaw-dropping attack on Formula 1’s new regulations.
The four-time world champion, who has been the biggest critic of the sweeping 2026 F1 regulation reset, launched his most scathing broadside against the rules yet at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Following his retirement in Shanghai, Verstappen remarkably claimed that anybody who enjoys the new F1 regulations doesn’t understand motor racing.
“It’s terrible, if someone likes this, then you really don’t know what racing is about,” the Red Bull driver said. “It’s not fun at all. It’s playing Mario Kart. This is not racing.
“You are boosting past, then you run out of battery the next straight, they boost past you again. For me, it’s just a joke.”
This is not the first time Verstappen has made disparaging comments about F1’s new rules, and it is unlikely to be the last amid a seemingly relentless crusade at the start of a season dominated by off-track politics and furore surrounding the on-track action.
Let me start by saying that I am in favour of drivers speaking their mind and think it is a good thing. Nobody wants to see robotic responses, or carefully-worded PR-esque answers in a sport that stokes so much adrenaline and passion.
The last thing F1 needs is some kind of gagging order like in the World Endurance Championship, which since 2023 has banned its drivers from criticising Balance of Performance (BoP), a controversial regulatory tool used to, as the name suggests, equalise performance. Earlier this year, the IMSA SportsCar Championship announced it would follow this worrying lead started by WEC.
F1’s new rules have split opinion among drivers and fans alike, and a difference in views is not necessarily unhealthy. I am not suggesting Verstappen cannot have an opinion but his latest comments have stepped over a line.
The suggestion that anyone who could possibly be enjoying this new-look F1 is somehow inferior is a borderline insult and offensive to many fans.
With his claims, Verstappen is perpetuating the ‘real fans’ myth. This effective-gatekeeping is toxic and dismissive of F1’s audience and in particular newer and younger fans, perhaps who have only started watching F1 as a result of Netflix’s Drive to Survive. This is the antithesis to the growth of the world championship, which ultimately benefits everyone involved.
Strong views like Verstappen’s will only continue to polarise public opinion and spark debate on forums and places like social media, which has become an increasingly venomous and harmful arena for such discussions to be held in recent years, leading to all kinds of abhorrent abuse.
Verstappen has called F1’s new rules “anti-racing”
At the end of the day, if Verstappen truly hates the new rules this much, he can freely choose to race elsewhere, as he has repeatedly threatened to do. No one is forcing him to compete in F1 against his will, albeit losing such a phenomenal talent would be a huge blow for the world championship.
Christian Horner once famously told Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff to “change your f****** car” at the height of Red Bull’s dominance in the ground-effect era, at a time the Silver Arrows were calling for changes on safety grounds amid concerns about porpoising. Ironically, the boot is now on the other foot.
Regardless of what Verstappen insists, there is absolutely no way he would be as vehemently against the new rules as he is currently being if he was at the front of the field and enjoying Mercedes-level superiority.
Mercedes boss Wolff suggested as much when asked about the matter on Sunday in China: “Clearly, lift and coast for a qualifying lap for a guy like Max, who is all attack, is difficult to cope with and digest. But I would say it’s more a car-specific issue that kind of magnifies the problem that it is, because if you sit in front of a TV or a screen, even Max would say that was interesting racing at the front.”
Verstappen was against calls for rule changes when he was at the top, regardless of how entertaining F1 was – or in many people’s opinion – wasn’t.
Let’s not forget this is the same Verstappen who didn’t have a good word to say about the Las Vegas Grand Prix until he won it, and previously told anyone unable to appreciate Red Bull’s dominance that they are not true fans.
The previous generation of F1 cars are considered some of the best ever and the pinnacle of engineering. But the racing spectacle was poor and drivers had countless complaints about the cars being too heavy and cumbersome, and overtaking being too difficult.
Now the show has arguably improved, with more on-track passes and nose-to-tail action than most people can remember and drivers are still moaning. There is an element here that the drivers will never be satisfied.
As current championship leader George Russell remarked at the season-opener Australia, F1 drivers are inherently selfish and look out for number one, as do all top-level athletes in the heat of intense competition.
Racing drivers complaining about rule changes when they stopped winning is nothing new. It has happened since the birth of motorsport and will continue as long as it exists.
But in telling fans they don’t know racing if they like a ruleset he doesn’t, Verstappen has gone too far.
