"This is not racing": Verstappen blasts new F1 after Chinese GP nightmare

Max Verstappen once again took aim at F1’s new regulations, claiming fans who enjoyed them are not real racing fans.

The Dutchman had a torrid weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, missing out on points in Saturday’s sprint race before being forced into retirement in the race proper with an ERS cooling issue while running in the lower points scoring positions.

His Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar meanwhile finished eighth in the RB22, picking up his first points for the team after he was similarly forced to stop on track in the season opener in Australia a week prior.

While the race had plenty of action, a lot of fans have pointed to the artificial nature of it, with a lot of the overtakes happening as cars use their boosts to pass, rather than out-maneuvering into corners.

This ‘push-to-pass’ has taken a lot of the enjoyment out of racing for Verstappen, who blasted the new style when speaking afterwards.

“It's terrible,” he said. “If someone likes this, then you really don't know what racing is like. Not fun at all. Playing Mario Kart. This is not racing.

“Boosting past, then you run out of battery, the next straight they boost past you again. For me, it's just a joke.”

Adding to his woes, in both races, Verstappen struggled to get off the line at the start, dropping almost to last in race.

He continued: “We tried a different procedure to help with the start, had a similar issue and lost quite a few positions at the beginning, ending up at the back of the grid.

“There are quite a few things we need to go away and analyse and learn from in order to improve our overall performance of the car. It is not where we want to be and something we will be looking at in detail ahead of Japan.”

Hadjar recovered from a spin on the opening lap of the race to claw his way back up into the points. After a quick battle with Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Hadjar’s car snapped into a spin at the fast hairpin before the back straight, sending him to the back of the field before fighting his way back through.

He said: “It's a shame I wasn’t able to score more points today. I had a good start and had decent initial pace in the early laps. I enjoyed the fight with Ollie, it was good to race, but then the rear snapped out so fast and I lost the car.

“I had to then come through the pack, but I got some good overtakes and managed to work my way into the points. We got a little lucky with some of the cars ahead, but it's still nice to get my first points with the team.

“At the moment, we're just lacking pure car performance to be competitive with the teams at the front but we're understanding how to improve the car and its balance with each weekend.”