Imagine Formula 1 listening to Max Verstappen ‘going back’ to its normally aspirated future! Oddly enough, sustainable fuels actually make that quite plausible
Max Verstappen has been speaking a lot of sense lately. In fact, I like him more every time he ponders this sort of thing. His views on Formula 1’s proposed 2026 regulations are lucid, absolute. The trouble is, Max reckons those cars will be crap. Undriveable and impossible to overtake.
Leave it to the lawmakers, and I suppose that’s what we will get. More crap Formula 1. Listen to the best driver on the grid, and sport may just stand a chance to return to its most glorious days.
Those of us privileged enough to witness and remember them, weep every time we consider those heady days. When the veritable DFV bothered Ferrari and Alfa Romeo flat, and Matra V12s. Never mind BRM’s H16. Or the immaculate V10 era.
So let’s just say we love how the World Champion has kicked the F1 engine hornet’s nest. He implies a return to V8s. And we deduce that Verstappen is obviously inferring they should be naturally aspirated. He also calls for far less aero. And much smaller brakes. So they can race.
“Formula 1 is really overcomplicating its 2026 engine rules and we need to take a serious look at it, Verstappen warned in a recent interview. “From what I see from the data and on the sim and all the numbers, the 2026 engine package looks terrible to me.
Verstappen: I love how smooth a V8 engine is
“There are a few things I’d change,” Max suggested when asked to describe his ideal 2026 Formula 1 car. “I would definitely get rid of the hybrid. “I love how smooth a V8 engine is. Yes top speed is slow compared to now, but the pick-up of the engine, and the torque is just so smooth: the downshift, and the upshifts, so much more natural to what we have today.”
“Grand Prix racing is also going in the wrong direction on aero, I would make the cars a lot draggier, so you don’t have to rely so much on the DRS.” Max also prefers a lighter car. “Of course, safety is why the cars are heavier, to make the chassis stronger, so we can’t go back to 500 kilos. But we are way too heavy at the moment and we must look into that.”
Looking at the practicalities of a late change, it appears there may well be time for a shift in philosophy: “We are well advanced in our 2026 engine plans and we are starting to see a few limitations,” Verstappen’s Red Bull boss Christian Horner concurred. “We still have two and a half years, and I think if there is a redress it would create a potentially better solution.”
Although he remains more committed to the sport’s hybrid plans, Ferrari F1 boss Frederick Vasseur agrees that there is time to change the 2026 regulations set. “It’s a three-year programme, so there’s enough time to fine-tune the rules.”
Is Formula 1 really committed to sustainable fuels?
Getting back to Formula 1 engines, Max Verstappen not only has a most interesting point of view, but it is very close to Formula 1’s commitment to future alternative, carbon-free fuels. Also, while much of the world remains fixated on the complexities of electric motoring, e-fuels offer a far simpler sustainable motoring solution.
Sustainable fuels are also why most of the carmakers are in F1. And why others are coming. That was also Porsche’s raison d’etre for its iced F1 return. And it seems that there is already a fundamental swing in place as carmakers and the fuel industry are turning towards rather plotting a more sustainable eco-fuelled future.
All of which makes Verstappen’s idea of F1 dumping hybrid so much more plausible. If Formula 1 really is so committed to sustainable fuels, why not just go the whole hog, and fly that flag of a 100% sustainably fuelled motoring future? Go back to the future with clean combustion engines in an epic laboratory for real future motoring propulsion answers?
Max’s wild ideas would make an epic Formula 1
So, imagine for a second, a return to normally Formula 1 aspirated internal combustion engines at a set capacity. Be that three or four litres, or whatever. Running a pre-set capacity of the ultimate in sustainable fuels. And leave the rest to the carmakers to sort out how they cover 300 kilometres quicker than the rest, every second Sunday.
Think about it like this: was it not the thrill, the excitement and the diversity of screaming V12, V10 and V8 engines that made Formula 1 what it is today? Of course, it was! So why does the sport continue to shun all of what made it so special, so unique? Why has Formula 1 thrown away so much that once made it so special?
Yes, indeed, as wild as it is, Max Verstappen’s view on Formula 1 not only demands all of that clamour, exhilaration and diversity should return but is that idea not just the ticket the sport needs to make it just as special as the way some of us still remember it?
As unlikely as they are, Verstappen’s brave ideas on Formula 1 suggest an incredible step back to lead the sport bolder than ever, into the future. Such a move would make F1 so much more special again.
But does Formula 1 have the balls to even listen to Verstappen, and consider the sport’s greatest current asset’s brave V8 opinion? Now that really would be something!