Oscar Piastri was particularly critical after the Belgian Grand Prix<\/a>, describing the role of self-learning deployment systems in determining performance as a \u201cpretty crap way of going racing\u201d.<\/p>\nSpeaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen said others were now recognising the problems he had warned about before the regulations arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken my mind about these regulations already a long time,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning most people were saying, \u2018ah, he\u2019s complaining, he should shut up\u2019. But I have to say that the last few races, more and more people are seeing the same thing that I could see coming already a long time ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s not about me not winning anymore, it\u2019s just because I care about the product.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drivers have struggled with electrical deployment at circuits with longer straights, where small differences in throttle application could influence how much power remained available later in a lap.<\/p>\n
Verstappen said the system could punish drivers for carrying greater speed through corners and prevent them from gaining the advantage they ordinarily would.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just your throttle input,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy being faster sometimes in the corner, you lose more in the straight afterwards, which, of course, is not how it should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn every kind of racing series, if you gain time in the corner, that\u2019s just free lap time. You would not then be penalised on the straight, normally.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that drivers were instead forced to alter their technique to protect energy rather than simply extracting the maximum performance from the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere now, you really have to think about, \u2018oh, I have to use a different gear, braking technique, or the way you go back on throttle\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Verstappen believed the restrictions had also contributed to smaller gaps between drivers, particularly within teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically just neutralising a lot of lap time, and that\u2019s why, I guess, in general, you see a lot of close battles between teams and also teammates, because sometimes you cannot make a difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to make a difference because it will just penalise you on the next straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dutchman also criticised how the regulations had changed overtaking, arguing that drivers could complete passes simply because the car ahead had already used its available battery power.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very different. I don\u2019t really enjoy it that much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s actually very funny where you see people in front of you fighting, they\u2019re using their battery and actually by doing nothing, you just pass them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just pass them on the next straight by literally doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen added that active aerodynamics had further changed the nature of racing by reducing drag and allowing some passes to be completed before the braking zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prefer to draft up to someone and then maybe go for an overtake on the brakes or whatever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, the overtake sometimes is done in the middle of the straight, it\u2019s a bit odd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, of course, that real racing fans understand. The non-racing fans think it\u2019s cool because you just see more overtakes, but it\u2019s not real. It\u2019s not what racing is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue was expected to be less pronounced at the Hungaroring because of its shorter straights, but Verstappen said he had grown tired of repeatedly explaining his concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt one point, I am also a little bit fed up with repeating myself, because it is already hard enough just having to drive it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Verstappen currently sits seventh in the drivers\u2019 standings on 91 points.<\/p>\n
2026 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has said more drivers are seeing his continued issues with the current F1 engines. Image: XPB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3516,111,139,69,12362,213],"class_list":["post-542199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-max-verstappen","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\u2018Fed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/XPB_1427416_HiRes.jpg\")