{"id":496818,"date":"2026-02-22T13:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496818\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:20:10","slug":"max-verstappen-kicked-the-hornets-nest-forcing-formula-1-into-damage-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496818\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen kicked the hornet’s nest forcing Formula 1 into damage control"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first red flag that the 2026 Formula 1 engine regulations were in trouble came when Max Verstappen branded them \u201cFormula E on steroids\u201d and \u201canti-racing\u201d<\/a> when they broke cover.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is the dominant driver of this generation, a racer through and through with a massive following. A four-time World Champion and an uncompromising competitor. He has never hidden his scepticism of the Formula 1 hybrid era, nor of the next evolution built around a 50\/50 split between internal combustion and electrical power.<\/p>\n

When Verstappen refuses to join the scripted chorus, as great champions have done in the past when warranted, Formula 1 listens. And reacts.<\/p>\n

That reaction came swiftly from Stefano Domenicali<\/a>, who moved to calm the narrative around the 2026 package: \u201cI guarantee you that Max wants and cares about Formula 1 more than anyone else. He has a way of putting the point that he wants to say in a certain way. <\/p>\n

“We\u2019ll have a very constructive meeting also with the federation to highlight what are his points of view of what he believes needs to be done to keep the driving style at the centre without changing the approach,” added Domenicali.<\/p>\n

The technical defence was led by Nikolas Tombazis, who acknowledged the concerns but insisted progress has been made: \u201cThe cars are new. Last summer and last autumn, a lot of people were driving the simulators and expressing huge concerns.”<\/p>\n

Energy deployment under scrutiny\"max<\/p>\n

Tombazis continued: “I think the comments in Barcelona and in Bahrain are certainly much better than what people said based on the simulator. But there are still some comments, like what Max said. We are completely conscious that we may need to make adjustments. <\/p>\n

“That has been a discussion we\u2019ve been open about with the teams and the PU manufacturers for a long, long time. And with the drivers. So I think there are some ways that we can act as a sport to make adjustments in the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on specifics, the FIA man pointed to energy deployment: \u201cPotentially some of the rules to do with energy deployment. There wouldn\u2019t be any need for any change of your system. It would be more how you run your system. Clearly, if you go to a power unit engineer, they would say, \u2018Well, that changes a bit the duty cycle. And if I had known it, I would have maybe done this slightly different\u2019 or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tombazis stressed that the sport is not in crisis: \u201cWe think we are not in a bad place where we are now. But if there needs to be some adjustments following these comments, we will discuss them all collectively as a sport and do what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take the comments that have been made in November or October or last summer, I think we are way, way better now. We\u2019ve addressed a lot of the concerns. Have we addressed every single concern? No. I think there are some topics that are still open. Of course, it is very easy to say, yes, if the ICE was much bigger and the ERS was much smaller, there would be fewer of these problems, and that is true.”<\/p>\n

Rulemakers knew the 50\/50 power solution would be challenging\"fia-nikolas-tombazis-2026<\/p>\n

Tombazis revealed: \u201cWe\u2019ve known right from 2022 that the 50\/50 power solution has challenges. It\u2019s not new or a surprise. We\u2019ve done a huge amount of work to work on how this energy is deployed. And I think we\u2019ve done, in my view, 90% of the work to get to a reasonable place. There may be some adjustments as we\u2019ve learned about the cars, and we are fully open to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the 2026 Formula 1 season<\/a> opening at the Australian Grand Prix in 2 weeks, the question is timing. Tombazis revealed: \u201cWe are learning as we go along. And the first real test will be the first race, because in Bahrain testing they\u2019re not really racing each other. <\/p>\n

“These changes do need a bit of discussion. There may be a few weeks of discussion, and we also need to go through the governance process. So, it\u2019s unlikely to be something between Australia and China, for example, but it\u2019s also not months and months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take the decision for the best of the sport. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I definitely hope that Australia will be exciting. But I don\u2019t think Australia is the\u2026 We have 5 years to go through, and we have very clear tools on how to act on things. We will see where we stand and discuss them openly and transparently, and do our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, time marches on with Melbourne on the near horizon. Formula 1 will deal with reality check number one when these new power units are used in real anger for the first time. And there will be nowhere to hide. When the flag drops, the Bullsh!t stops!\u00a0(Reporting by\u00a0Agnes Carlier<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first red flag that the 2026 Formula 1 engine regulations were in trouble came when Max Verstappen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,210359,35119,813,816,825,85],"class_list":["post-496818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-2026","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496818","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=496818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}