Max Verstappen hopes the controversial 2026 Formula 1 regulations can be changed before he considers quitting the sport.
Verstappen has been the driver most outspoken about the new, more heavily hybridised 2026 power unit, which he described during pre-season testing as being “not very Formula 1-like” and “anti-racing”.
He subsequently sensationally tied his ongoing participation in Formula 1 to the rules changing.
“This certainly doesn’t help to keep going for a very long time,” he said at the time.
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Speculation Verstappen was preparing for a future outside Formula 1 intensified this week with confirmation the Dutchman would enter the Nürburgring 24 Hours with his own team and with Red Bull backing, his latest in a growing line of outings in GT3 machinery.
Speaking at the Chinese Grand Prix, Verstappen admitted he was conflicted about his Formula 1 future but said that his extra-curricular activities would likely extend his grand prix career rather than shorten it.
“I don’t want to leave, really,” he said. “I wish I had a bit more fun for sure, but I’m also doing other stuff that is a lot of fun.
“I get to race the Nordschleife. I hope in the coming years I can do [24 Hours of] Spa, hopefully [24 Hours of] Le Mans.
“I’m combining stuff to find other stuff that I find really fun as well.
“I have my team going on, so I have a lot of distractions at the same time — positive distractions I would call them.
“But at the same time, it’s a bit conflicting because I don’t really enjoy driving the [current F1] car, but I do enjoy working with all the people in the team and from the engine department as well.
“It’s almost like a bit of a mind — I can’t swear.
“I wish I had a bit more fun at the moment here, but at the same time I’m also very happy that the team let me do all these things.
“It’s just something that I’m looking forward to.”
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After the Australian Grand Prix, where discussion was dominated by the driving compromises required by the new engines, Verstappen said he was speaking out because he wanted to save Formula 1 and that he hoped the governing body would listen.
In Shanghai he suggested he’d been able to start the conversation to change the rules sooner rather than later.
“I don’t want to leave, but I also hope of course that it gets better,” he said.
“I’ve had discussions with FOM and FIA and I think we are working towards something, hopefully, and hopefully that will improve everything.”
The Dutchman denied his impeding Nürburgring 24 Hours debut was connected to his dissatisfaction with the current cars, arguing that it had been set up long before the Formula 1 season began.
But he also said that he was finding fresh satisfaction from the GT3 environment that he is no longer getting from Formula 1.
“It’s just a way of working with people,” he said. “It’s a bit of a different environment as well that you’re in in the paddock, I would say — probably a little bit more old-school, less political, which probably I enjoy a bit more. I can probably be a bit more myself.
“That’s what I enjoy, plus of course these races, like all the big endurance ones, I want to do. It’s something that when I was a kid my dad was doing.
“I don’t need to be only a Formula 1 driver; I can also do other things, especially as I’ve done this already for a while and I’ve achieved everything that I wanted to achieve. That’s why I want to explore also 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.”
Speaking about his hopes this weekend, Verstappen said that Red Bull Racing’s result will depend on how well it can extract performance from its new car and first in-house power unit, though he added the gap to the leading Mercedes and Ferrari cars was foreboding.
“For sure there is a lot of potential,” he said. “It’s just going to depend on if we can extract that throughout the year.
“The gap was quite big and also in the race [in Australia]. I think if I would have started a little bit up front, the best that I could have done was one spot higher, because we didn’t have the pace of the top four cars. We also had a lot of degradation and graining.
“We’ll see what happens in the coming races, if we can close that gap a little bit.”
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