SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Max Verstappen joked someone might \u201cshoot\u201d him if he continues to complain about Formula 1\u2019s new engine regulations this year, but said he\u2019s had to \u201cmentally readjust\u201d when driving some of his favourite circuits in the latest generation of cars.<\/p>\n
The four-time champion has been among the most vocal critics of the sport\u2019s 2026 power unit regulations, which have put added emphasis on using electric power.<\/p>\n
At circuits with long flat-out sections and limited braking zones, the battery — which provides nearly 50 percent of peak power under the 2026 rules — quickly becomes depleted and limits the car\u2019s overall power output as electrical energy is recovered.<\/p>\n
The famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which is home to this weekend\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix, is an extreme example of a circuit that is considered \u201cenergy starved.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a typical qualifying lap at Spa, drivers use all their battery power in the first sector, meaning they need to use the section of high-speed corners in the middle sector — including the once formidable Pouhon — to recover energy, before they deplete the battery once more on the run between Stavelot and the final chicane.<\/p>\n
Compared to last year\u2019s qualifying session, Verstappen was 35 km\/h (21 mph) slower through the high-speed Pouhon corner and 3.775 seconds slower over the entire lap.<\/p>\n
After securing second place on Sunday\u2019s grid, Verstappen said the energy management required for a qualifying lap meant the circuit now feels completely different compared to previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not only Pouhon, it\u2019s the whole track,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a different Spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, yep, I mentally readjust to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the battery is depleted, the car relies solely on the V6 turbo engine for its power, which itself is limited in power by a restriction on fuel flow.<\/p>\n
The Red Bull driver said this year\u2019s F1 cars have similar power to an F3 car when the battery cuts out, sapping the enjoyment from a qualifying lap at a high-speed circuit like Spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor most of sector two [at Spa] you run just on the engine,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what is that? 450 or 500 bhp — something like that?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich is, I guess, more or less what a Formula 3 car has, but with F1 downforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you can imagine, of course, that is not very exciting to drive. But also I don\u2019t want to sit here and complain again, because probably someone is going to shoot me outside the door [of the press conference room].\u201d<\/p>\n
The sport\u2019s management has been defensive about the impact of the new regulations this season, with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali insisting in April that the series had \u201cno problems\u201d despite a wave of criticism from drivers.<\/p>\n
After the third round of the season in Japan, Verstappen said he was considering quitting F1 at the end of the year due to the impact of the regulations, although changes promised for 2027 and 2028 appear to have convinced him to stay.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Saturday, he said he would rather drive the current F1 cars than not participate at all, but reiterated that he has had to change the way he thinks about the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said before, I am mentally just adjusting to it and trying to make the best out of it, even though it\u2019s not what I love to do in Formula 1,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I could also just sit at home and drive nothing and that also doesn\u2019t do anything. So I will just try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Max Verstappen joked someone might \u201cshoot\u201d him if he continues to complain about Formula 1\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-810700","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\/810700","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=810700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}