New cars ‘like Formula E on steroids’ – Verstappen

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen says the new cars in Formula 1 this year are “not a lot of fun” and “like Formula E on steroids”.

The Red Bull driver says the increased demands for energy management with new hybrid engines are “just not Formula 1”.

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.

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.

“For me, that’s just not Formula 1. Maybe it’s better to drive Formula E, right? Because that’s all about energy efficiency and management. That’s what they stand for. Driving-wise, it’s not so fun.”

He 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, ‘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.