Verstappen loathes F1’s new generation of cars – but what do his rivals reckon?
Max Verstappen’s criticism of Formula’s 1 new regulations could hardly have been more damning.
The four-times world champion branded the 2026 rules “anti-racing” and suggested they could lead him to quit F1 altogether.
How widely held are his views throughout the grid? And how closely are the drivers’ statements about the rules linked to the performance of their cars?
Is the criticism of the new rules only coming from those whose teams have made a poor start to the new season – those who might be hoping for a further change which might compromise those who have started the season well? Here’s what some of Verstappen’s rivals have said about the 2026 rules:
Norris
Honestly some of the racing, I didn’t even want to overtake Lewis [at Suzuka], it’s just my battery deploys, and I don’t want it to deploy but I can’t control it. So I overtake him and then I have no battery, so he just flies past.
“Not as authentic as it needs to be
This is not racing, this is yo-yoing. Even though [Hamilton] says it’s not, it is yo-yoing. When you’re just at the mercy, of whatever the power unit delivers, the driver should be in control of it at least, and we’re not.
Yes the racing can look great on TV, but the racing inside the car, is certainly not as authentic as it needs to be.
The problem is, it deploys into 130R, I have to lift, otherwise I’ll drive into him, and I’m not allowed to go back on throttle. If I go on throttle, my battery deploys, and I don’t want it to deploy, because it should have cut, but because you lift, and you have to go back on and it redeploys.
There’s nothing I can do about it, so there’s just not enough control for a driver, and that’s why you’re just too much at the mercy, of what’s behind you, and that’s just not how it should be.
Being able to keep George behind [at Suzuka] was a big surprise. Once he got back into second, I thought that he was going to come past in about half a lap and I was going to settle in for second and wait for Kimi to do the same. But the fact that we could be so close to Mercedes and beat one of them, I think that was a much more pleasant surprise.
Russell
“More like go-kart racing”
There’s a lot going on, but it makes it quite fun and definitely feels more like go-kart racing in the past, like the top three, top four drivers are all in contention. And I don’t ever remember Formula 1 being like that, where you can have three or four cars all fighting for the same position truly on track.
Antonelli
I think in a track like [Melbourne] the overtake was incredibly powerful and you could overtake. It created a lot of action in the first few laps of the race. So on this kind of track there will be a lot of action, in some other track maybe a bit less. But I think today was much better than what we all anticipated.
Hadjar
For sure, the excitement of fighting for wins against top drivers is still going to be here, and that’s what matters the most. But still, you’d like to do it in cars that are super, super fast. It makes it a bit better normally.
Honestly, I was very sceptical at the beginning of the year, and after testing I had some particular expectations going into the year that weren’t very good about racing. I’ve been positively surprised.
At least for us in the front, it’s actually been a lot nicer than what I thought. Sure, you’ve got some overtakes that are artificial, just like it was the case also with the DRS sometimes last year. However, there are also many overtakes where it’s actually on the limit and where you end up in a similar state of the battery at the same point for different circumstances, which makes it actually quite fun. We’ve seen it in Australia, we’ve seen it in Shanghai, and I’ve had a lot more fun than I initially thought.
Hamilton
“The best racing I’ve ever experienced in Formula 1”
The cars are easier to follow, much better than past years. You can get very close. There’s not a bad wake where you’re losing too much downforce. I think it’s the best racing I’ve ever experienced in Formula 1. Of course, these [Mercedes] guys are pulling past us at crazy speeds. […]
It felt like go-karting, back and forth, back and forth, and you could really position your car in a nice way where there was a thin piece of paper between us sometimes, but we didn’t exchange any paint. I think that’s down to great drivers and respect.
Albon
We actually talked about [the risk of a crash] in the drivers’ briefing, just about the closing speeds and defending and moving and all these kinds of things. It feels really awkward now, because you want to defend but you’re sometimes worried that the car is behind – if they’re in control of their car.
Maybe we just need to make [Straight Mode] itself a bit more stable or less powerful or something like that. More like a regular DRS that you can control quite easily. I don’t know.
I was so surprised when they said ‘no, we will sort out qualifying and leave the racing alone because it’s exciting’. As drivers, we’ve been extremely vocal that the problem is not only qualifying, it’s also racing.
“The racing is not okay”
We’ve been warning that [the type of crash Bearman had at Suzuka] was always going to happen. Here we were lucky there was an escape road. Now imagine going to Baku or going to Singapore or going to Vegas and having these kind of closing speeds and crashes next to the walls.
It was 50G, I heard, it’s higher than my crash in Russia in 2015, I was 46G. Just imagine what kind of crash you could have in a Vegas, Baku et cetera. I hope it serves as an example and the teams listen to the drivers and not so much to the teams and people that said the racing was okay, because the racing is not okay.
Lawson
At the moment, it’s sort of very inconsistent. We’re doing a lot. We obviously make our own decisions on when we charge and deploy, and it’s quite different between teams and engines.
It obviously depends on what the FIA decide to do. But right now, there are a lot of differences that we have to be quite careful of. Because you can be having quite a good run on a car, and all of a sudden they start charging, and you’re right behind them with [Straight Mode] open, [there’s] not a lot you can do to avoid them.
Overtaking these days is accidental. Suddenly you find yourself with a higher battery than the car in front, and you either crash into them or you overtake them. It’s an evasive manoeuvre, not an overtake.
Ocon
I think the positive is how the car feels in corners. I think this is much more back to how it was probably like 2016 – the good cars in 2016, the top cars. Definitely the way you slide, the way you can attack the corners, it’s much more predictable and a lot nicer in terms of balance and also in terms of how the car rides overall. So, to me that is a step forward to last year.
“The positive is how the car feels in corners”
Then the other positive in the race is that there was, even if they were chaotic, more action. There was more overtaking, more fighting wheel-to-wheel throughout the race, which was definitely positive.
Is it straightforward in the car? No. Can the driver make enough of a difference as a driving style to be able to make, like, chess moves? No. And this is probably the negative at the moment.
But I think overall that would probably improve throughout the year, and if that improves it should be much more enjoyable.
Bearman
I think it’s tough because for F1, FIA, it’s not as easy as it looks for them because we go from having these amazing cars to drive, qualifying was one of the biggest spectacles, but it was also quite tough to follow and tough to stay close, and so we complain a little bit about not being able to overtake. Then we get to this new car where the overtakes have tripled and now we complain that there are too many overtakes. There’s an element of drivers always finding something to complain about.
But I think it feels just a little bit overkill at this stage where it’s not necessarily that you’re faster that you can overtake easily, it’s not necessarily that you can stay in front and defend your position if you have a quicker car, and that is tough.
If you really give everything, you brake later or you do a great defensive move, it’s not necessarily going to be the case that you hold on to the position because if there’s a long straight afterwards you’re in trouble. It’s tough because you have a lot of speed on the exit, but at the end of the straight a small difference in power can result in a big over-speed. So those big over-speeds are tough to really do anything against when the guy is coming past you at such a speed that you can’t hold on to the position.
With the energy stuff, in a way, it’s interesting and fun, but at the same time, it’s also weird and frustrating. You do the move, but you’re just… you really have to pick your fights, and it’s so easy to overspend and get a big de-rate and be a sitting duck.
“Sometimes the closing speeds are really immense”
Sometimes the closing speeds are really immense. So I don’t know. The [racing] was probably entertaining on TV, there was probably lots going on, but it’s different.
Gasly
I think, honestly, there’s a bit too much negativity around it and I don’t like that.
I really think that we still take too much away from the drivers. When you’re driving in sector one [at Suzuka] and you’ve got a certain grip, it doesn’t really matter. The battery, all these things, you’ve still got to be at the limit of the grip you get given.
Definitely, I agree with what others are feeling, the battery management, et cetera, I think we all agree. We all see the same stuff. We all speak the same language. We all want the sport to be as good as it can be. I’m sure we’ll do what’s best.
It’s a bit of a review. I’m sure [in the] break everyone’s going to make the best of it to try to get the F1 in better shape.
China was a good race and I did enjoy it quite a lot. I enjoyed the defence and when I was attacking others, and generally it was pretty good. It didn’t feel too artificial. I think the overtakes were just on the limit all the time.
I’ve seen some that were a bit more artificial, but I think it’s part of the changes that the sport made and that’s still improving and it’s still going in the right direction. I think there are still a lot of areas to make better, and the important part is that they are looking at those and they understand them.
Bottas
Still the biggest thing is still getting the most out of the car in terms of the cornering: the right lines, being on the limit, braking late, good exits. But there’s an extra element to it now, gear choices, the way you feed in the power, but that’s still at least for us is quite minimal, but it’s still the biggest gain is just pushing the car to the limit.
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