Max Verstappen is considering quitting Formula 1 over the 2026 regulations after finishing eighth in the Japanese Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion, who came within two points of a fifth title last year, has been a vocal critic of this year’s sweeping regulatory change and in particular of the 2026 engines, which are almost evenly split between combustion and electrical power.
Though the new motor is among the most powerful ever made in Formula 1, its reliance on power from the battery has triggered some deeply counterintuitive behaviour from the drivers and their cars to generate electrical energy.
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Drivers aren’t able to push hard in qualifying through the sport’s most spectacular fast corners, where the power unit diverts energy from petrol motor away from the rear axle to charge the battery, a phenomenon known as super clipping. Drivers are also lifting and coasting at the ends of the straights for the same reason.
Some tracks bring out the worst of these elements. Suzuka Circuit, one of the world’s most iconic venues thanks to its flowing, high-speed layout, is among those considered ‘energy starved’ — that is, drivers have to aggressively manage their batteries rather than drive normally.
Verstappen has been a staunch critic of the current formula from his first simulator test of the 2026 car in previous years, and the Dutchman has grown increasingly despondent about the rules over the opening three rounds of the season.
His Red Bull Racing team has also suffered a decline in fortunes after a promising pre-season campaign. It’s currently sixth in the championship, while Verstappen is ninth in the drivers standings after qualifying 11th and finishing eighth in Japan.
In an interview with the BBC sure to ring alarm bells at Red Bull Racing and trigger concern at Formula 1, at Verstappen emphasised that he was “not enjoying the whole formula” introduced this year and that his dissatisfaction with modern Formula 1 could drive him out of the sport.
“That’s what I’m saying” he said when asked if he was weighing up walking away from the sport at the end of the season.
“I’m thinking about everything inside this paddock.
“You just think about: is it worth it, or do I enjoy being more at home with my family (or) seeing my friends more when you’re not enjoying your sport?”
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NOT ABOUT COMPETITIVENESS
Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull Racing until the end of 2028 on bank-busting terms that have reportedly seen him rake in $75 million per season.
However, widespread reports suggest an exit clause in his contract could allow him to walk away from the team if he’s outside the top two in the championship in the middle of the season.
That favourable clause previously had Verstappen linked to Mercedes, where team boss Toto Wolff has been a long-time admirer of the Dutchman after losing the battle for his signature as a junior driver fresh out of karting more than a decade ago.
But despite having held talks with the Dutchman’s management team last year, Wolff has dismissed the idea that he would continue pursuing Verstappen for 2027 at the expense of six-time race winner George Russell or title leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“Someone said that the Max discussions will eventually come back on the table again, but no, there are not any Max discussions,” he told the Press Association.
“I could not be happier with the two drivers that we have. The positioning of the two, with the age gap and how it aligns well with our strategy, means there are not any discussions.
“The Max-to-Mercedes thing for now is not on. The situation is completely transparent. We have clear contracts with both drivers.”
Verstappen has also denied his criticism is connected to the competitiveness of his machinery, scotching the theory that he’s orchestrating a move to Mercedes.
“People can easily say, ‘Yeah, well, you’ve won so many championships and races and now just because the car is not good you are complaining.’ Maybe you can see it like that, but I see it different.
“I can easily accept to be in P7 or P8 where I am, because I also know that you can’t be dominating or be first or second or whatever, fighting for a podium every time. I’m very realistic in that and I’ve been there before. I’ve not only been winning in F1.
“But at the same time, when you are in P7 or P8 and you are not enjoying the whole formula behind it, it doesn’t feel natural to a racing driver.”
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Verstappen has long railed not simply against the way the 2026 car needs to be driven but also against the kind of racing action the regulations have generated.
Though overtaking has markedly increased this year, bolstering the sport’s highlights reels, Verstappen is one of several drivers who feel to a greater or lesser extent that passing in 2026 is artificial, with the Dutchman likening it to Mario Kart.
“I try to adapt to it, but it’s not nice, the way you have to race,” he said. “It’s really anti-driving. Then at one point it’s just not what I want to do.
“Of course you can look at it and make a lot of money — great — but at the end of the day it’s not about money anymore, because this has always been my passion.
“As a kid this is what I wanted to do, and back then I had no idea what I was going to achieve and how much money you make. You never think about that as a kid.
“It’s also not about that. I want to be here to have fun and have a great time and enjoy myself. At the moment that’s not really the case.”
Notwithstanding that position, Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies said that the Dutchman would be happier if his team could deliver him a more dependable car.
“We are having zero discussions about those aspects (of him quitting),” he said.
“I’m sure by the time we give him a fast car, he will be a much happier Max, and by the time we give him a car, he can push and make the difference with, he will also be a happier Max.
“Honestly, that’s 100 per cent of our discussions right now.”
But Verstappen admitted that his motivation is beginning to wane.
“I see it like this, and you hear it from a lot of sportspeople when you speak to them about how they are successful: it all starts with actually enjoying what you’re doing before you can actually commit to it 100 per cent,” he said.
“Now, I think I’m committing 100 per cent, and I’m still trying, but the way that I am telling myself to give it 100 per cent I think is not very healthy at the moment because I am not enjoying what I’m doing.”
His satisfaction working with Red Bull Racing, which he joined a decade ago, is not enough to counteract his dissatisfaction with the rules.
“Of course I do enjoy certain aspects,” he said. “I enjoy working with my team — it’s like a second family — but once I sit in the car, it’s not the most enjoyable, unfortunately.
“I’m trying. I keep telling myself every day to try and enjoy it. It’s just very hard.”
CAN VERSTAPPEN’S EXIT BE STOPPED?
There’s been a sense this year that Verstappen already has one foot out the door, with the Dutchman increasingly involved in the world of GT racing.
He owns a GT3 team, which competes in his name, and he’s on a trajectory to competing in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring later this year in the same category — he won a curtain-raising four-hour race at the iconic Nordschleife last weekend with Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella but was disqualified for a tyre infringement.
Verstappen has long held the position that he’s in Formula 1 for a good time, not a long time, and his GT3 activities have increasingly been viewed as a likely key plank of his post-grand prix career.
“I have a lot of other projects anyway that I have a lot of passion about — the GT3 racing, not only racing it myself but also the team,” he said. “It’s really nice and fun to build that, and I really want to build that out further in the coming years.
“It’s not like, if I would stop here, that I’m not going to do anything. I’m always going to have fun, and also I will have fun in a lot of other things in my life.”
But as much as the Dutchman is likely closer to the end of his Formula 1 career than the start, he did hint that the sport could change his mind.
“They know what to do,” he said at the end of his final answer to the BBC.
Verstappen’s objection to the sport is clear. Put simply, there is too much regulation between his right foot and the rear axle. The driver is increasingly a component of a technical package rather than its master, leaving less room for the sport’s best drivers to make a difference.
This dilemma manifests in many different ways: in the lacklustre qualifying spectacle, in the difficulty executing a pass on the brakes that sticks, in the unpredictable speed differences between the cars.
The problem is that solving all three of them is extremely complex within the boundaries of the regulations.
The current power unit with its almost 50-50 split between combustion and electrical power was the primary component of the 2026 regulations and designed specifically to draw new manufacturers to the sport. It successfully attracted Audi, and it also convinced Honda to backflip on its planned withdrawal to partner Aston Martin. Ford is also in partnership with Red Bull Powertrains, and Cadillac will debut its own motor later this decade.
But it was only when the sport got around to designing the chassis regulations that it realised the power unit rules were fundamentally flawed.
The cars can’t regenerate enough power to keep the engine running at its full 750 kilowatts for an entire lap at most circuits, leading to the unusual driving styles and car behaviour that Verstappen so detests.
Take qualifying, for example, when drivers can no longer push flat out for the entire lap because it’s more valuable to save electrical energy for the straights than deploy it through the corners.
The FIA could fix that this year, but it would come at the expense of speed either by dramatically reducing the battery capacity or the hybrid motor output.
It could tweak the rules to allow the cars to charge more aggressively, but that could trigger even greater closing speeds between cars through the high-speed corners, causing more accidents like Oliver Bearman’s in Suzuka.
In the longer term the sport could allow manufacturers to create more powerful combustion engines to compensate for reduced electrical energy, but such a change won’t be possible this season.
That’s before considering some of the more obscure but no less frustrating elements of the new rules, like the algorithms that govern the hybrid motor. Drivers are increasingly complaining that unexpected lifts of the throttle — for example, Leclerc’s small lift exiting Spoon in qualifying to save himself from the gravel — result in the car refusing to deploy electrical power on the straights, costing them bucketloads of time.
Moved by Bearman’s monster crash but responding to growing speculation about potential changes, the FIA said on Sunday that the rules “have been the subject of ongoing discussions between the FIA, teams, power unit manufacturers, drivers and FOM.”
“By design, these regulations include a number of adjustable parameters, particularly in relation to energy management, which allow for optimisation based on real-world data,” it said in a statement.
“Any potential adjustments, particularly those related to energy management, require careful simulation and detailed analysis.
“The FIA will continue to work in close and constructive collaboration with all stakeholders to ensure the best possible outcome for the sport, and safety will always remain a core element of the FIA’s mission.
“At this stage, any speculation regarding the nature of potential changes would be premature.”
But Verstappen — along with other drivers — fear the case for change will be hijacked by vested interests.
“I know they’re trying their best, but it’s also political — which I fully understand of course … I’m not bitter about that or anything,” he said after qualifying.
“For this year it will be tiny little changes that doesn’t really make a big difference. I just hope that the changes are big enough for next year.”
Verstappen would surely prefer not to leave Formula 1 at the end of this season and with this as the context.
But having proclaimed after his first world title that everything else would be a bonus, the Dutchman appears prepared to stick to his word.
“It’s a bit sad, to be honest, that we’re even talking about this,” he said. “It is what it is.
“You don’t need to feel sorry for me. I’ll be fine.”