Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes Red Bull and Max Verstappen are set for a “rough year” following the Dutchman\u2019s repeated complaints about the new regulations.<\/p>\n
It has been a difficult start to 2026 for Verstappen and Red Bull under the new power unit regulations, with the four-time world champion even hinting that he could retire at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
So far this campaign, Verstappen has crashed out in qualifying in Australia, retired due to a technical issue in China, and was eliminated in Q2 most recently in Japan.<\/p>\n
After three rounds, the 28-year-old has just 12 points and has scored fewer than both Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly and Haas\u2019 Oliver Bearman.<\/p>\n
Producing everything in-house, including the power unit, has proven to be an immense challenge for the Milton Keynes-based outfit\u2014something that was always going to take time to adjust to.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s criticism of the new F1 rules has not been directed at his own car, but instead at perceived weaknesses in the regulations, which he has described as “Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing”.<\/p>\n
Asked for his thoughts on the new F1 regulations and Verstappen’s criticism, Montoya told talkSPORT: “I think it’s good. I think what people forget is that one of the reasons F1 works is that you need to create something that attracts manufacturers.<\/p>\n
“Because, at the end of the day, what really grows the number of manufacturers in the sport is doing something significant and relevant to them.<\/p>\n
“And as a driver, when you’re young, you don’t understand that. Now, when you get a little older and a little wiser, you do. And I understand his frustration because they’re not running well.<\/p>\n
“And I think, from what you’re hearing now, with the rumour that the car is really heavy, like the Williams, they’re going to have a rough year. So we’re going to hear a lot more from Max, I would assume.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes Red Bull and Max Verstappen are set for a “rough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,2476,578,2479,2477,2480,2478,930,576,577,932,1885,2475,582,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-583551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-calendar","13":"tag-f1-live","14":"tag-f1-results","15":"tag-f1-standings","16":"tag-ferrari","17":"tag-formula-1","18":"tag-formula1","19":"tag-lewis-hamilton","20":"tag-max-verstappen","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-racing","23":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583551","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=583551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}