MELBOURNE, Australia — Max Verstappen said he\u2019s \u201cnot having fun at all\u201d driving Formula 1\u2019s controversial cars after crashing out of the season\u2019s first qualifying session.<\/p>\n
Verstappen spun out of Q1 as he hit the brakes on approach to Turn 1, meaning he will start the opening race from rear end of the grid.<\/p>\n
The four-time world champion has been critical of the new generation of cars for long before Saturday\u2019s session took place, likening them in February to all-electrical series Formula E \u201con steroids\u201d.<\/p>\n
F1\u2019s new engines have moved towards a near 50\/50 split between combustion and electrical power which has placed a massive emphasis on energy harvesting and battery management throughout the lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely not having fun at all with these cars,\u201d Verstappen said after qualifying. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I mean, you can make up your mind, but I think if you look at the onboard, you see enough, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Onboard clips have circulated this week on social media showing the extreme speed reduction cars are experiencing on the approach to Albert Park\u2019s Turn 9, a phenomenon known with these new cars as \u201csuper clipping\u201d.<\/p>\n
Drivers are having to coast at numerous points on the circuit in order to harvest the batteries which are now essential to racing the new cars.<\/p>\n
Even Verstappen\u2019s qualifying spin seemed to be a by-product of the hybrid aspect of the engines, with the MGU-K component of the hybrid engines transferring energy to the rear of the car in order to help the energy harvesting process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hit the pedal and the whole rear axle just completely locked, which is, especially with these Formula 1 cars, very weird,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I\u2019ve never experienced that in my whole life … I have no idea where it comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen later added: \u201cThere are so many things that we need to look at, I think, in general as a sport. So, what can I say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s blunt and continuing criticism will be concerning to Formula 1 as a whole.<\/p>\n
Widely regarded as F1\u2019s best driver by some margin, the Dutchman has regularly teased the idea of quitting in the near future if he is not enjoying himself – either because of the the performance of his Red Bull team or with the machinery itself – and were he ever to do so, it would be a damning indictment of the new rules.<\/p>\n
Perhaps even more deflatingly for Verstappen was the emergence of Mercedes\u2019 true pace advantage on Saturday afternoon, with preseason favourite George Russell qualifying 0.2s clear of teammate Kimi Antonelli and nearly a full second clear of Verstappen\u2019s teammate Isak Hadjar in third.<\/p>\n
Facing a start at the back of the grid, Verstappen was asked what he could do on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t even know what to change, to be honest. It\u2019s going to be a long day from now. It\u2019s going to be a long season, that\u2019s all I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Mercedes suddenly turning the wick right up on their engine, Verstappen said: \u201cIt\u2019s what I said already in Bahrain, \u2018let\u2019s wait and see in Melbourne, and you will see how fast they are.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, for me, that\u2019s not a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Verstappen\u2019s crash, he actually took part in the session by leaving the pits, whereas both Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz failed to make it on track at all, so he was 20th out of 22 on the final classification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia — Max Verstappen said he\u2019s \u201cnot having fun at all\u201d driving Formula 1\u2019s controversial cars after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-521594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}