Verstappen added: “All the good drivers will be able to adapt to it. That’s not the problem, but it’s just the whole way of racing is changing, and I would say less pure.
“I just want normal driving, just how it should be, without having to [think] ‘oh, if I brake a bit longer or less or more, or one gear up or down’, you know, stuff like that, that it so heavily impacts the performance on the straights.”
However, world champion Lando Norris offered a different view to the Dutchman.
“A lot of fun,” the McLaren driver said. “I really enjoyed it. Formula 1 changes all the time. Sometimes it’s a bit better to drive, sometimes not as good to drive.
“But we get paid a stupid amount of money to drive so we can’t really complain in the end of the day.
“Any driver can go and find something else to do. It’s not like he has to be here or any driver has to be here.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s a good, fun challenge for the engineers and the drivers.
“It’s different. You have to drive it in a different way and understand things differently and manage things differently.
“But I still get to drive cars and travel the world and have a lot of fun, so, no, nothing to complain about.”
The all-electric Formula E series has become known for featuring heavy energy management to ensure cars can get to the end of the races without running out of charge.
F1 is not in the same situation. Rather than a single amount of charge that depletes from maximum to empty from the beginning of the race to the end as in Formula E, the batteries in F1 will go from full charge to very low and back again several times a lap.
But Verstappen’s point is that a lack of energy to run flat out all the time is taking the sport away from its traditional form of driving.
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