{"id":545269,"date":"2026-03-17T02:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T02:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:28:10","slug":"mercedes-boss-toto-wolff-shuts-down-max-verstappen-criticism-of-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545269\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff shuts down Max Verstappen criticism of regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff<\/a> shut down criticism of F1’s<\/a> new regulations from Max Verstappen<\/a>, saying the former champion’s angst stems from the “horror show” Red Bull car he’s forced to drive.<\/p>\n

Verstappen blasted the sport’s new era as a “joke” after retiring from the Chinese Grand Prix with a power \u200bunit problem.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull driver, no fan of the new engine with its \u200cincreased electrical element and need to manage energy deployment, slowed and limped back to the pits on lap 46.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Put me on the spot’: Record breaker admits PNG interest<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Absolute doubt’ over Magpies superstar’s long-term future<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘No conditions’: A-League club welcomes Iran players<\/a><\/p>\n

He was not classified in a race of 15 finishers.<\/p>\n

“It’s not about being upset at where \u200bI am, because I’m actually fighting even more now,” the Dutchman told reporters.<\/p>\n

\"Eighth<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen struggling early in the season.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I \u200bwould say the same if I was winning races, because I care \u2060about the racing product.<\/p>\n

“For me, it’s a joke,” he continued, calling the new rules “fundamentally \u200bflawed.<\/p>\n

The 71-time race winner has spent more time this season scrapping for meagre points than \u200bhe has been used to.<\/p>\n

He fought his way through the pack from 20th on the grid following a crash in qualifying at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, and dropped from eighth to 14th in \u200bSaturday’s sprint race in China before finishing ninth and out of the points.<\/p>\n

Not everyone shares \u200bVerstappen’s opinion, with Wolff praising the racing between his two drivers and the Ferraris \u200cof \u2060Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari drivers were also effusive about the battle between them in a race that ultimately saw Kimi Antonelli secure his maiden F1 win for Mercedes.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes we are nostalgic about the good old years, but I think the product is good \u200bin itself,” Wolff \u200btold reporters after \u2060the race.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority, through all demographics, like the sport at the moment.<\/p>\n

“Max is really in a horror show. I’m \u200bsure for someone like Max, who is a full attack guy, \u200bit’s difficult to \u2060cope and digest.”<\/p>\n

Verstappen said he hoped F1 would not prioritise reaching new fans and growing the sport’s appeal by making overtaking easier at the expense of conventional racing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Toto Wolff and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I hope they \u2060don’t \u200bthink like that, because it will eventually ruin the \u200bsport. It will come and bite them back in the ass,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Maybe some fans like it, but they \u200bdon’t understand racing.”<\/p>\n

F1 officials were due to consider tweaks to the rules in order to address some driver complaints after China.<\/p>\n

But since the race proved to be successful, it’s understood the meeting will still take place, but decisions on whether the rules will be adjusted will now not take place until after the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.<\/p>\n

A five-week gap in the schedule will allow changes to be met at the next race in Miami, after the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi races.<\/p>\n

– with Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff shut down criticism of F1’s new regulations from Max Verstappen, saying the former champion’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-545269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545269","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=545269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}