{"id":769992,"date":"2026-06-30T00:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T00:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/769992\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T00:50:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T00:50:35","slug":"max-verstappen-triggers-major-f1-pu-warning-after-laughing-in-silverstone-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/769992\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen triggers major F1 PU warning after \u2018laughing\u2019 in Silverstone preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Max Verstappen admitted that he was left \u201cjust laughing\u201d at a notable problem he discovered in simulator preparations for this weekend\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Dutchman heralded a return to form for his Red Bull team at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/racing\/2026\/austria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austrian Grand Prix<\/a> with second place, despite crashing in qualifying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting fifth after his shunt, Verstappen leapfrogged both Ferraris and the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli to finish just 1.7 seconds adrift of the sister Merc of George Russell at the chequered flag.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It laid claim to a justification in the Milton Keynes-based squad\u2019s new upgrades suite for the race in Spielberg, and sparked intrigue in the possibility of another Verstappen title comeback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This gives Verstappen the foundations to right a few wrongs at Silverstone this weekend, having suffered an uncharacteristic spin last year, which helped Lando Norris take victory on home soil, on his way to his eventual defeat of Verstappen in the title battle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But despite declaring the classic circuit as one he \u2018loves\u2019, the four-time World Champion once again raised the issue of this season\u2019s controversial power unit regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLet\u2019s take it race by race,\u201d Verstappen told media, including Motorsport Week, when asked if he felt he could challenge for victory. \u201cSilverstone, I love the track, but I did a few laps on the simulator, I just started laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Max-Verstappen-Lewis-Hamilton-Austrian-GP-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton rekindled an old rivalry with a fierce battle in the early stages of the race\" class=\"wp-image-250279\"  \/>Max Verstappen showed considerable improvement in the Austrian Grand Prix<\/p>\n<p>Max Verstappen: New F1 rules will make British GP \u201ca tough one\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Silverstone\u2019s exciting blend of corners have often made it one of the more exciting races on the calendar, and it is clearly a challenge that Verstappen thrives on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the new 50-50 hybrid V6 power units left him feeling, based on his apparently amusing simulator session, that it felt somewhat alien.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt felt like a different track, to be honest,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou barely have battery around the lap. It\u2019s just constantly flat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo yes, it\u2019s going to feel very different compared to what we are used to around Silverstone, because of the layout of the track.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere [Red Bull Ring] you have long straights and big braking zones, so you can charge the battery.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere you have long straights but in a fast corner, for example, so you can\u2019t really charge the batteries, and then the next straight you don\u2019t have a lot to spend. It\u2019s going to be a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Verstappen took pole position last year, after a radical setup change which ultimately backfired in race conditions, but will be keen to grab any opportunity to rejuvenate his 2026 chances with both hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-c288aface42edb5762d7c7329cbd1132 wp-block-paragraph\">READ MORE \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2026\/06\/29\/ferrari-mercedes-f1-admission\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ferrari issues blunt Mercedes F1 confession after Styrian damp squib<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen admitted that he was left \u201cjust laughing\u201d at a notable problem he discovered in simulator preparations&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[4999,49,48,578,576,577,1885,82],"class_list":["post-769992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-britishgp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769992","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=769992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}