Fabulous. Max Verstappen has gone full diva and it’s only the first week of testing. This is absolute gold for the hot-take industry and for the producers of Drive to Survive mulling Netflix plot lines to light up season nine.
The sport’s new eco-cars, running half on electric power and half on fossil fuel grunt, are not for old-skool Max, despite Red Bull being the class of the early season field. They require the driver to think in a way that runs counter to the racer’s instinct, like not going flat out down the straight or easing off the throttle coming out of corners. No, no, no.
One day of testing in Bahrain was enough to trigger the familiar Verstappen ennui and push him closer to the oft-threatened retirement. And this after Verstappen set the bar high in a Red Bull powered for the first time by their own engine developed in collaboration with Ford.
“The feeling is not very Formula One-like. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids,” he said. “I enjoy driving flat out. And at the moment, you cannot drive like that. There’s a lot going on. A lot of what you do as a driver has a massive effect on the energy side of things.
Verstappen is less likely to feel constricted once proper racing begins (Photo: Getty)“I just want normal driving, just how it should be, without having to [think] ‘oh, if I brake a bit longer or less or more, or one gear up or down’. For me, that’s just not Formula One.”
To which McLaren’s Lando Norris, who ended Verstappen’s world title streak at four last season, said boo hoo, if you don’t like it, see ya. “I really enjoyed it. Formula One changes all the time. Sometimes it’s a bit better to drive, sometimes not as good to drive. But we get paid a stupid amount of money to drive so we can’t really complain,” he chirped.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good, fun challenge for the engineers and the drivers. You have to drive it in a different way and understand things differently and manage things differently.” And then the kicker: “Any driver can go and find something else to do. It’s not like he has to be here.”
Verstappen softened his critique somewhat with a qualified apology to the team, its workforce, partners and sponsors who worked like dogs to produce a car that allayed fears of a slow start under Ford power. Don’t be silly Max, tension is sport’s secret sauce and good for business. Norris piling in has already peppered the piece ahead of the first race of the season in Australia, just three weeks away.
Verstappen was back behind the wheel on Friday morning clocking the third fastest time behind the Mercedes of George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who, interestingly, offered a similar critique to Verstappen after Wednesday’s opening stint.
There is universal praise, however, for the appearance of the cars, which, being smaller and more nimble, at least satisfy Verstappen’s desire for the sport to align aesthetically and spiritually with its past. And they will still hit speeds faster than aeroplanes taking off.
None of the complaints made by Verstappen about harvesting energy and car management on some straights and out of some corners will necessarily harm the viewing experience. And the power constraints felt by the drivers in testing might not be experienced the same way in a race. Testing is time-trialling, not wheel-to-wheel competition.
Norris hit back at Verstappen’s complaints about the new cars (Photo: PA)Norris’s observations hint at the importance of drivers thinking as well as feeling their way around a lap. The need to conserve in key moments, in defence as well as attack, is a variable that might shake-up the racing in a way that enhances the spectacle.
The new engines retain the 1.6 litre V6 configuration but operate with only one energy recovery unit instead of two. The cars still harvest kinetic energy under braking and when lifting off the throttle but have dropped the capacity to harness energy from exhaust gasses. Half the power derives from the engine and half from a battery charged via the MGU-K energy recovery unit, which is three times more powerful than last season’s version.
For the most part energy recovery is automatic, with some driver override options. It is up to the team to configure the power output using the various engine profiles available, and the driver to determine when to push the button.
Pushing buttons is very much Verstappen’s game, of course. Consider this the first salvo in a campaign to have the rules reframed to allow for more aggressive driver agency in the application of the new technologies. The settings that control power usage are entirely arbitrary, stage settings if you like, imposed by the regulatory body to enhance the show.
Change is always a challenge, especially for one whose grasp of the old regs was absolute. Verstappen is the defining driver of the epoch, as Hamilton was before him, Michael Schumacher before him. He will be happy enough when the wins start dropping in the thick of another title race, one he is already favoured to win in a car described by Mercedes’ George Russell as scarily quick, making the best use of the new power regs of any on the grid. We’ve been here before.
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