Max Verstappen expressed criticism of the new Formula 1 cars during the test days in Bahrain. The Dutchman even called the 2026 cars ‘unworthy of Formula 1’, but it was not the first time Verstappen had criticized the new cars. As early as 2023, he warned that the 2026 challengers looked ‘pretty bad’. According to father Jos Verstappen, everyone just laughed at his son back then: ‘They said Max was being negative’, said Verstappen.
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The Formula 1 teams have completed their first test kilometers with the 2026 cars, but not every driver was enthusiastic. For instance, Charles Leclerc lacked driving pleasure during his first laps in the SF-26, while for Fernando Alonso, the challenge is hard to find under the new regulations: ‘Even our cook can drive it’, the Spaniard stated. Max Verstappen was perhaps the biggest critic, and even labeled driving the 2026 cars as ‘Formula E on steroids’.
However, it was not the first time that Verstappen spoke out critically. In 2023, the Dutchman already warned that the cars under the new regulations ‘looked bad’. “I have seen the data on the simulator and in my opinion it looks pretty bad,” Verstappen said at the time during the press conference in Austria. “If you go full throttle on the straight at Monza and have to downshift 400 or 500 meters before the end of the straight, then I don’t think that is the right approach.”
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‘Everyone laughed’
According to Jos Verstappen, father of the four-time world champion, everyone just laughed back then. “Max was already talking about this two or three years ago,” the current rally driver tells Viaplay. “He had seen certain data, but everyone laughed at him then. They said: that Max was being negative and things like that. Now that the rules are here, everyone can see it. So they should listen to the drivers a bit more. But they don’t.”
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