Max Verstappen warned that Formula One’s ‘painful, joke’ regulations will ‘bite the sport in the a***’
The four-time world champion spoke out at the end of a Chinese Grand Prix won by Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.
The Silver Arrows are dominating proceedings at the start of the season which has seen the biggest technical overhaul in the sport’s history.
As well as changes to the chassis, controversial new half-electric engines have been introduced with drivers left to decide when to deploy their battery power, which changes during a lap.
Verstappen, who retired from the race, is furious at the changes, saying: ‘It will eventually ruin the sport. It will come and bite them back in the ass.
‘You could have seen this coming from a long time ago. They (F1 bosses) should have listened in 2023 to see this coming. Hopefully it is a lesson for the future – to listen.
‘It is terrible. If someone likes this then they really don’t know what racing is about. It is not fun at all. This is not racing.
‘Look at it? We are boosting past. Then you run out of battery and they boost back past you again. It is just a joke.
‘It is only Kimi or George (Russell, second for Mercedes in China) winning, right? They are miles ahead of the field. It is just that Ferrari sometimes have these good starts which push them ahead, and then it takes a few laps to be sorted out.
Max Verstappen was forced to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix
‘I would say the same if I was winning because I care about the racing product. It is not about being upset because of where I am.
‘You can help things a little (with tweaks) bit but it is fundamentally flawed. It is painful.’
Verstappen finished sixth at the opening race in Melbourne last weekend after crashing out of qualifying and starting 20th; came ninth in the sprint in Shanghai, and was running sixth when he retired from the grand prix.
He added: ‘They (Formula One Management and the FIA) understand where we are coming from as drivers. I think I speak for most of the drivers. Some, of course, will say it’s great because they are winning races, which is fair enough.
‘When you have an advantage, why would you give that up, because you never know if you’re going to have a good car again?
‘But I don’t think it’s what real F1 fans like. Maybe some fans like it, but they don’t understand racing. Hopefully we can get rid of this as soon as possible.’
Lewis Hamilton, who finished third to claim his first podium for Ferrari, disagreed, calling the new racing ‘awesome’ after a long wheel-to-wheel battle with his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
‘It’s great fun, like go-karts,’ said the seven-time champion. ‘There is back and forth, back and forth.’