"Very anti-racing" - Max Verstappen slams F1 power units as he makes 'minimum' demand for next season

Max Verstappen once again criticised the implementation of new power bank units in Formula 1 this year and labelled them as 'anti-racing'.

The Dutch driver took advantage of George Russell's forced retirement to finish third in the Canadian Grand Prix over the weekend and record his first podium of the 2026 season.

Verstappen was delighted to get back on the podium and relished another battle with old foe Lewis Hamilton, while Kimi Antonelli secured pole position.

"Because of the retirement of George, normally the two Mercedes cars would have taken off," he told Sky Sports after the race.

"Yeah, for us it was a positive result. I thought on the soft we were a little more competitive, just on the medium we couldn't generate the tyre temp that we needed around here. It never really gave us the feeling of the tyres; they were just never really gripping. That's why it was a little more difficult for us.

"Nevertheless, a good result for us to be on the podium."

Max Verstappen slams F1 power units

Verstappen was then asked about his latest thoughts on the power banks, after bosses agreed a change to engine design for the 2027 season.

Several drivers have complained that the current 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power has diminished the challenge in qualifying. An agreement is now in place to increase the proportion of total power coming from the internal combustion engine by 50kW (67bhp) and reduce the electrical power by the same amount.

Verstappen is pleased with the current proposal, but warned that a 60/40 split should only be the minimum and warned that there might still be work required if they are to find an appropriate balance.

He added: "That's the minimum. Yeah, well, the thing, I know how pure other motorsports can feel like, you know? So then when you come back to this, it’s just… not very nice. I don’t want to be too 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, very anti-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 will naturally help everything a bit."

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