‘Formula E on steroids’ or ‘a lot of fun’? New F1 cars split drivers

Max Verstappen says the new cars in Formula 1 this year are “not a lot of fun” and “like Formula E on steroids” – but Lando Norris disagrees.

Four-time world champion Verstappen says the increased demands for energy management with new hybrid engines are “just not Formula 1”.

But Norris – who pipped Verstappen to the 2025 title by two points – argued the new cars were “a lot of fun”, adding: “Any driver can go and find something else to do. It’s not like he has to be here or any driver has to be here.”

The new engines are energy starved because of the way the rules have been structured and require several kinds of recovery to ensure the battery has sufficient levels of charge for optimum lap times.

This is leading to unusual forms of driving, such as not accelerating out of the final corner before a qualifying lap, lifting and coasting to save energy when trying for ultimate performance, and changing down to lower gears in corners for optimum energy harvesting.

Verstappen, whose team have built their own engine for the first time this season, said: “The right word is management. But on the other hand, I also know how much work has been going on in the background. Also from the engine side, for the guys. So it’s not always the nicest thing to say.

“But I also want to be realistic. As a driver, the feeling is not very Formula 1-like. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids.

“As a pure driver, 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, in terms of inputs, has a massive effect on the energy side of things.

But Norris said: “A lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Formula 1 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 in the end of the day.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good, fun challenge for the engineers and the drivers.

“It’s different. You have to drive it in a different way and understand things differently and manage things differently.

“But I still get to drive cars and travel the world and have a lot of fun, so, no, nothing to complain about.”

Verstappen said his concern was that the new cars were moving away from what would traditionally be expected of an F1 driver.

Verstappen added: “All the good drivers will be able to adapt to it. That’s not the problem, but it’s just the whole way of racing is changing, and I would say less pure.

“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’, you know, stuff like that, that it so heavily impacts the performance on the straights.”

The all-electric Formula E series has become known for featuring heavy energy management to ensure cars can get to the end of the races without running out of charge.

F1 is not in the same situation. Rather than a single amount of charge that depletes from maximum to empty from the beginning of the race to the end as in Formula E, the batteries in F1 will go from full charge to very low and back again several times a lap.

Senior figures in F1 have cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the new rules at such an early stage when everything about the cars is new.

The biggest regulation change in F1 history has this year seen new rules for chassis, engines, tyres and the introduction of sustainable fuels.

The engines have a near 50-50 split between the internal combustion and electrical parts and have three times as much electrical power as last year with a battery of more or less the same size.

There are ways the rules could have been constructed to ensure energy management was not such a feature, for example by slightly reducing the power of the hybrid element and allowing the engines to use more fuel, or even by allowing recovery of energy from the front axle as well as the rear. But none of those have so far been allowed.

On the chassis side, a straight-line mode has been introduced which reduces drag from the front and rear wings specifically to aid energy recovery. The tyres have been made narrower for the same reasons. And the cars are smaller and lighter and have less grip and downforce.

The cars recover energy in four ways:

Verstappen is considering competing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours at the famous 14-mile long Nordschleife circuit this year in a GT car – a modified road car.