The four-time world champion doubled down on comments made after qualifying in Montreal, where he admitted remaining under the current rules package would be “mentally not doable” for him beyond this season.
Speaking after finishing third in the Canadian Grand Prix to secure Red Bull’s first podium of 2026, Verstappen said the proposed move towards a 60-40 combustion-to-electric power split next year represented the bare minimum needed to improve the racing.
Asked by Sky Sports what level of change he wanted from the regulations, Verstappen replied: “The minimum that they’re trying to get to for next year. That’s the minimum.”
When asked to clarify whether the proposed 60-40 split was the absolute minimum he would accept, Verstappen replied: “Yes.”
The Dutchman then expanded on his frustrations with the current cars, saying they no longer delivered the kind of racing experience he wanted from F1.
“The thing is I know how pure other motorsports can feel like. So then when you come back to this it’s just not very nice,” Verstappen said.
“I don’t want to be negative now after a race like this, but I know what it feels like to drive pure racing cars and pure overtakes, pure racing, and just natural driving.
“This is all a bit like, especially in qualifying, very empty driving. Anti-racing. And that’s not what Formula 1 should be about.
“So I really hope that next year we can get that 60/40, because that would naturally help everything a bit.”
Verstappen’s latest comments come amid growing uncertainty over whether F1’s proposed 2027 power unit revisions will actually be introduced next season.
Although teams and manufacturers had initially agreed in principle after the Miami Grand Prix to shift away from the current 50-50 power split, resistance from several manufacturers has since emerged, with some pushing for any major changes to be delayed until 2028.
Verstappen had warned on Saturday that remaining under the current concept for another season was not something he wanted to endure.
“If it stays like this, it’s going to be a long year next year, which I don’t want,” he said after qualifying.
“It’s just mentally not doable for me to stay like this. Absolutely not.”
He also admitted he would once again consider leaving F1 altogether following similar comments earlier in the season if the sport failed to head in the direction he believes is necessary.
“No. There’s a lot of other fun things out there,” Verstappen said when asked if he would simply take a break from F1.
Andrea Stella also weighed into the debate in Canada, with the McLaren boss warning the entire sport would suffer if manufacturers blocked the proposed changes.
“This is a general interest that should prevail over the particular [self] interests, because if we don’t have a good sport, if we don’t preserve the value of the business, the value of F1, everyone will have a loss,” Stella said.
“So I do hope that the conversation ongoing will lead to a successful position because this will overcome, finally, some of the limitations that are fundamentally inherent to this hardware that we are using at the moment.”
Despite his ongoing frustration with the regulations, Verstappen still managed to deliver Red Bull’s strongest result of the year in Montreal after capitalising on the retirement of George Russell, while also engaging in a late-race battle with the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, who was able to get ahead of the Dutchman into second with just six laps remaining.
“No. For sure not,” Verstappen said when asked if he expected to challenge for second place.
“But also of course because of the retirement of George. Normally the two Mercedes cars would have taken off.
“So for us of course a positive result. I think on the softs, we were a little bit more competitive. On the medium, I just couldn’t generate the tyre temp that we needed around here.
“And then, yeah, it just didn’t give us a good feeling on the tyres. They were just never really gripping. They were never in the window.
“And that’s why I think on that stint it was just a bit more difficult for us. But nevertheless I think we had a good result, you know, for us to be on the podium.”
The result moves Verstappen to within five points of Oscar Piastri in the drivers’ championship, with the Dutchman still sitting seventh in the standings.
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