{"id":44049,"date":"2025-08-05T00:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44049\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T00:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T00:24:10","slug":"max-verstappen-slams-front-wheel-drive-cars-worst-thing-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44049\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen Slams Front-Wheel-Drive Cars: ‘Worst Thing Ever’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull Racing switched to Honda engines for the 2019 season when it ended a 12-year partnership with Renault. Even though Honda left Formula 1 after the 2021 championship, the turbocharged 1.6-liter V-6 powering the RB21 this year still uses a Honda-developed engine. Over the years, F1 driver Max Verstappen has appeared in various commercials promoting production cars, including the Civic Type R.<\/p>\n

But from 2026 until at least 2030, RBR will use a new powertrain co-developed with Ford. The four-time F1 champion is already starring in a loosely veiled ad for the Blue Oval. Riding shotgun in an RS200 driven by journalist Chris Harris before hopping behind the wheel of a Mustang GTD<\/a>, the Flying Dutchman didn\u2019t hold back on his feelings about front-wheel-drive cars: \u201cI think it\u2019s really boring. For me, it\u2019s like anti-driving. I drove sometimes in the simulator. It\u2019s like the worst thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n

As you can imagine, Verstappen didn\u2019t conveniently forget he used to promote the CTR not that many years ago. Still the fastest front-wheel-drive production car around the N\u00fcrburgring<\/a>, Honda\u2019s hot hatch is generally regarded as one of the most enjoyable FWD cars. Nevertheless, it\u2019s perfectly understandable why Red Bull\u2019s driver gravitates toward RWD.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just because the Mustang GTD sends its V-8 power to the rear axle, as contractual obligations take precedence. Much like when Verstappen endorsed a rear-wheel-drive Honda by starring in an ad for the electric city car, calling it \u201cfun to drive\u201d<\/a> and a \u201cgreat electric urban vehicle.\u201d It wouldn\u2019t be fair to criticize Verstappen, given it was part of the job to say positive things about the CTR and other Honda products.<\/p>\n

While CTR and GTI fans might take offense at his statement, at the end of the day, it\u2019s all about personal preferences. Don\u2019t bring out the pitchforks just yet. Ford itself is no stranger to performance front-wheel-drive cars either, although the days of the Fiesta ST are over, and the Focus ST is only months away from retirement<\/a>. Had those cars still been around, it\u2019s easy to imagine Verstappen thrashing either hot hatch with a big smile on his face in an official ad.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n

\n Source:<\/p>\n

Ford Performance \/ YouTube <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull Racing switched to Honda engines for the 2019 season when it ended a 12-year partnership with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,1695,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-44049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-industry","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}