Verstappen proven right: F1 is broken and putting drivers at risk

Verstappen has been clear for years that he disapproved of the new rules. In China, it was clear that discussions had taken place with the drivers behind the scenes. Formula 1 and the FIA were keen to project a positive message about the new regulations. “Let’s focus mainly on the fact that the races are more exciting now,” seemed to be the thinking.

Verstappen was one of the few consistent voices in the paddok. He sounded the alarm about these new rules back in 2023 and has clearly been supported in his view. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have both backed Verstappen for weeks, but in Japan more drivers joined in.

For a long time, the other drivers seemed able to keep up appearances. The trigger was Bearman’s crash at Suzuka. With the new power units - and the regeneration, you inherently create enormous speed differentials. Drivers have been warning about this for years, but no one at F1 or the FIA has made changes.

The view that everything had to be done to attract new manufacturers to Formula 1 is prevailing. Audi joined under these new rules and Honda returned after all. Formula 1 fears it would be left only with Mercedes and Ferrari if it charted its own course on engines—that it would look more like IndyCar than Formula 1. But what F1 has become now is hardly palatable either.

These rules, in fact, put drivers in life-threatening danger due to the way the power units operate. That became painfully clear with Bearman’s crash. Until now, things often just about went right; this time, they just went wrong. Critics will point to Franco Colapinto’s move, but he wasn’t at fault here. A driver’s instinct is to move to the inside there, but no driver is used to such huge speed differentials caused by an empty battery.

In other sports, the game for children, youths, and adults is exactly the same. Footballers are on a pitch with a ball from the age of 3 or 4, and the game changes hardly at all over the years. Only the pitch they play on gets bigger.

In Formula 1, however, from karting through Formula 2, motorsport is a discipline where the driver must push with the internal combustion engine and defends and attacks on the straights against rivals with similar combustion engines. Once in F1, though, it becomes a completely different sport: suddenly you have to recharge a battery in fast corners and you’re dealing with extreme speed differentials against the very drivers you’re fighting on track.

It’s good that more drivers are lining up behind Verstappen. It could lead to change. The problem, however, is that F1 is tied to these power units, as Oscar Piastri so painfully pointed out in the press conference. Those engines won’t be adjusted overnight. And so we keep sticking on band-aids. All of this, just to keep the manufacturers happy. The drivers and a portion of the fans are paying the price.