Verstappen Soars to Ultimate Thrill Ride!

Motorsport photo Someone made the mistake of suggesting to Max Verstappen in the post-race media ‘pen' in China that some of the racing seemed less ‘artificial' this weekend, at least enough to get the people in the grandstands energised and cheering. "It's terrible," he fired back. "If someone likes this, then you really don't know what racing is about.

"It's not fun at all. It's playing Mario Kart. This is not racing.

" Read Also: Max Verstappen: F1 fans who enjoy 2026 rules 'don't understand racing' The 2026 Formula 1 season continues to heap indignity upon ignominy for the four-time world champion. Having already declared the new technical rules a complete bust, he crashed in qualifying for the season opener, then became one of several drivers to be slow away from the lights when he arrived on the grid with a depleted battery. Racing through to sixth place might have seemed impressive to those watching a ‘sizzle reel' of Max passing cars to get there, but Verstappen shrugged it off, describing the process of overtaking cars "two seconds slower" as "just clearing traffic".

He's already begun pivoting towards styles of racing that engage him more, including a Nurburgring 24 Hours entry in a GT3 Mercedes . But his competitive plight in F1, and the state of the racing, clearly still occupy much of his mental bandwidth: usually you might get a minute or two out of him in the pen, but recently he's been so keen to vent spleen that he may as well bring a chair and make an afternoon of it. For Verstappen the Chinese GP was a midfield wrestle with the likes of Oliver Bearman's Haas For Verstappen the Chinese GP was a midfield wrestle with the likes of Oliver Bearman's Haas In China, he declared Friday's practice and sprint qualifying "a disaster".