Max Verstappen hates the new F1 cars

Early in the Bahrain test, journalists noticed Max Verstappen shifting all the way down to first gear when rolling through corners, evidently to charge his battery with the extra revs. This is exactly the sort of thing pundits imagined people doing under these new electric-heavy regulations, and Max is the best at doing weird stuff with race cars, so clearly he tried it. The back of the car squirmed around a lot, but, again, Max is the best. He can handle it. The other drivers started to copy him, but I have no doubt Max will dominate this year if that sort of trickery is necessary.

The problem is, he absolutely hated doing it. He was miserable. He called it “anti-racing.” He also called it “Formula E on steroids,” which sounds amazing, but clearly he meant it disparagingly. He doesn’t think driving a Formula 1 car should involve this much systems management. Lando Norris, who is the reigning Formula 1 world champion, later gave a rather champion-ly rebuttal, saying he’s perfectly willing to deal with the new car given that he gets to be a Formula 1 driver for a living.

Look, I want Max to quit and go sports car racing — and I’m sure Lando does, too — so we’re obviously biased, but I’m actually glad Max is unhappy. There tends to be an inverse correlation between how much fun drivers are having and how much fun it is to watch them.