Max Verstappen has delivered a stark assessment of the sport's current landscape, declaring it "a jungle."
The four-time Formula 1 world champion’s candid remarks come despite a strong recovery drive from 20th to sixth place at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix.
Looking ahead to the Chinese Grand Prix, Verstappen expressed pessimism about his Red Bull's prospects, suggesting a finish higher than fifth place would be unlikely, even with a better starting position.
He attributed this to the significant performance gap between Mercedes and Ferrari and the rest of the grid. "Honestly, it’s such a jungle out there at the moment," Verstappen stated during Thursday's driver news conferences in Shanghai.
"I mean, I would hope that it gets a bit closer ... but it’s clear that at the moment we cannot fight with those cars."
This isn't the first instance of Verstappen voicing his disapproval of the sport's new technical regulations, which he has previously labelled "anti-fun, anti-racing and could potentially be dangerous."
The complex new F1 cars feature extensive changes to both chassis and power unit, now incorporating an almost 50:50 output split between the turbo 1.6-litre V6 engine and electrical energy harvested from the brakes, demanding an often counterintuitive driving style from competitors.
One of Verstappen's concerns is starting the race with empty batteries in the hybrid cars.
Franco Colapinto only very narrowly avoided Liam Lawson at the start of the Australian Grand Prix, with the Racing Bulls car was slow off the line with minimal battery power — many drivers started with depleted batteries among the teething issues with the new rules.
“There are a few simple solutions, but they need to be allowed by the FIA, with the battery related stuff, because, yeah, starting with the 0% battery — not a lot of fun and also quite dangerous,” Verstappen said. "You can see, I mean, we almost had a massive shunt in Melbourne in the start.
“This is something that I think can be easily fixed.”
As for speculation he may quit if reforms aren't made quickly, Verstappen said: “I don’t want to leave, but I also hope, of course, that it gets better.
“I’ve had discussions with F1 and FIA and, I think, we are working toward something, hopefully, and, hopefully that will improve everything," he said, without elaborating on what the changes might be. “I hope already for next year we can already make a decent improvement.”
A 24-hour switch
In the meantime, in the search of more “fun,” he has confirmed this week he'll be driving his first 24-hour sportscar race at the historic Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in May. F1 hasn’t used it since 1976, when then-reigning champion Niki Lauda suffered severe burns in a crash.
“It’s one of the best races in the world, it’s one of the best tracks. I mean, honestly, in a GT car for me that’s like the perfect speed round there," Verstappen said. "I think if you go anything faster it can be a bit dangerous in places."
“I mean, I’ve been watching it, of course, for a long time. I know a lot of my friends, of course, that have been racing in it already. They say it’s one of the best things ever, and I like racing other cars as well.”
The 28-year Verstappen says he still has career ambitions.
“I don’t need to be only a Formula 1 driver, I can also do other things," he said. "I’ve done this for a while and I’ve achieved everything that I wanted to achieve, so that’s why I want to explore other things, and I don’t want to do them when I’m 40 years old. So now I think this is the perfect age to do it.”
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