{"id":681925,"date":"2026-05-20T13:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/681925\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:06:10","slug":"max-verstappen-is-possibly-the-best-racing-driver-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/681925\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen is possibly the best racing driver of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(GMM) Dr Helmut Marko (pictured with Max Verstappen) says Formula 1\u2019s controversial 2026 regulations have become so difficult to follow that he has abandoned using a second live-timing screen while watching races.<\/p>\n<p>The 83-year-old Austrian, now retired as Red Bull\u2019s F1 advisor, has been one of the fiercest critics of the new hybrid regulations, which heavily increased the importance of energy management and battery deployment.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraaf.nl\/sport\/autosport\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">De Telegraaf<\/a>, Marko admitted even longtime insiders now struggle to properly understand races in real time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had two screens at first, but now I\u2019m watching on one television,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA second screen with times didn\u2019t make much sense, because you can\u2019t see who has a full battery and who doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marko said the problem is not only the regulations themselves, but also the lack of crucial information available to viewers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFormula 1 is no longer the way it was,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n<p>The Austrian hopes the planned return toward simpler engines early next decade will eventually restore the sport\u2019s traditional character.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully the V8 engines will be back soon,\u201d Marko said.<\/p>\n<p>Formula 1 is already planning adjustments for 2027 that will shift the balance away from full 50-50 electrical deployment toward a roughly 60-40 split favoring the combustion engine.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Red Bull\u2019s difficult start to the season, Marko still believes Max Verstappen remains capable of producing results beyond the car\u2019s true level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRed Bull is short of the other top teams, but still Max managed to qualify the car in the front row in Miami again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he has the right material, he\u2019ll bring something extra that no one else is capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marko said Verstappen\u2019s sensational pace at the sold-out 24 Hours Nurburgring only reinforced that belief.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking separately to <a href=\"https:\/\/f1-insider.com\/formel-1-marko-red-bull-abschied-klartext-73929\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">f1-insider.com<\/a>, Marko declared: \u201cMax Verstappen is possibly the best racing driver of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe emphatically proved that once again on the Nordschleife. The performance was certainly extremely good for his image.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(GMM) Dr Helmut Marko (pictured with Max Verstappen) says Formula 1\u2019s controversial 2026 regulations have become so difficult&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-681925","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\/681925","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=681925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}