Max Verstappen Melbourne crash explained as Red Bull driver blasts ‘not correct’ F1 regulations

Max Verstappen has explained his qualifying crash in Melbourne, and has hit out at the new regulations in a formula he says is “not correct”.

The Dutch driver has been a vocal critic of the new regulations ever since they were formed, and says he is “not having fun at all” with the real-world cars.

Max Verstappen explains Melbourne crash and frustration with new F1 cars

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Verstappen has expressed misgivings about the new formula ever since first driving examples in the simulator over the past two years.

These misgivings became outright criticisms after driving the RB22 for the first time, as he revealed that he believes the new power unit rules have taken the sport in a direction that is ‘anti-racing’.

The regulations have seen the new engines become energy-starved on the electrical side, with drivers having to engage in unusual driving techniques to keep the battery topped up.

This has resulted in lots of ‘lift-and-coast’, as well as cars bleeding speed down the straights as they go into ‘super-clipping’ modes to harvest energy.

Despite the Red Bull appearing relatively competitive, Verstappen made it clear that his lack of enjoyment of the new formula may play a part in him eventually calling time on his career, and his critical stance hadn’t changed following qualifying for the opening race in Australia.

Verstappen was knocked out in Q1 as he suffered some sort of issue starting his first flying lap, flying off the road, and hitting the barriers.

“I just hit the pedal, and the whole rear axle just completely locked,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, straight after the session.

“Especially with these Formula 1 cars, it’s very weird. I mean, I’ve never experienced that in my whole life.

“I have no idea where it comes from. I didn’t speak to the team yet.”

Speaking later to Sky Sports F1, he said, “It went wrong before the downshift. I hit the pedal and quickly downshift, but it was already locked on the peak of the brake pressure. Something very weird, that’s for sure”.

Verstappen had gone to get his wrists checked out after the impact, visiting the Medical Centre, but revealed that he had escaped injury.

“Nothing broken,” he said. “With the steering wheel, when I hit the wall… but nothing is broken.”

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Watching on as Mercedes claimed a dominant pole position with George Russell leading Kimi Antonelli as the nearest competitor, Oscar Piastri, was eight-tenths of a second behind, Verstappen said he had been expecting the result.

“I said in Bahrain… ‘Let’s wait and see in Melbourne, and you will see how fast they are’. So for me, that’s not a surprise,” he said.

“The gap is eight-tenths… that’s still a very big gap, and we know that we have to improve the car to fight Mercedes, because, at the end of the day, we’re not here to be P3 to P6 or whatever. We’re here to win. So yeah, step by step, hopefully we can get closer.”

With Verstappen’s criticisms of the new rules making global headlines during the Bahrain tests, he revealed that his stance remained unchanged when he spoke in the driver’s briefing on Friday night.

“I said how I thought about it,” he said.

“I mean, I’m definitely not having fun, at all, with these cars. I don’t know.

“I mean, you can make up your mind, but I think, if you look at the onboard, you’ll see I’m right.”

With the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis having indicated that the governing body is open to making rules revisions to try helping matters, Verstappen said he feels there’s nothing that can be done to improve the situation.

“There’s nothing that you can do,” he said.

“You can only make it slower, and then, of course, you get a bit more of a normal speed trace, but it’s a slower speed trace.

“The formula is just not correct, and that is something that is a bit harder to change. But I think we need to.”

As for whether he can change anything on his car to bring himself back into contention this weekend, he summed up, “I wouldn’t even know what to change, to be honest. It’s going to be a long season.”

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