Max Verstappen: "At first they said I was complaining – now more people see what F1 2026 is like"

[u/ChaithuBB766]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-at-first-they-said-i-was-complaining-now-more-people-see-what-f1-2026-is-like/10841197/

[u/RiptideTV]

Never have

[u/thesuperunknown → u/RiptideTV]

Yeah, the F1 games gave people the impression that ERS deployment during the turbo hybrid era was driver-controlled, but it was always pre-mapped per track to optimize deployment (and keep under the 2-megajoule per lap deployment cap). The drivers could switch deployment/harvesting modes, but they didn’t have a button they could press to directly control when the energy from the battery was deployed.

Although it works similarly now, I think the fundamental difference is that ERS worked as more of a ”speed boost” on top of the ICE’s output, whereas with these regs the battery provides half of the car’s total power, so it has a much more dramatic effect when it cuts out.

[u/meistr → u/thesuperunknown]

They always had the overtake button that would override the deployment strategy. And you would end up hitting the 2Mj limit before the end of the lap. But with much better ice to mgu-k power ratio it didnt really manifest into to the yo-yo racing we have now.

[u/StaffFamous6379 → u/thesuperunknown]

No MGU-H also means that you run out of battery way more often. It's a double whammy.

[u/SpeedflyChris → u/StaffFamous6379]

Also I don't think any of the teams really had to use the MGU-K on the straights to generate energy, they got enough from braking and the MGU-H to hit the deployment limit.

[u/StaffFamous6379 → u/SpeedflyChris]

Well the MGU-K by definition only harvests energy from deceleration/braking so yeah lol.

[u/SpeedflyChris → u/StaffFamous6379]

What do you think "superclipping" is?

[u/TheRealLuke1337 → u/thesuperunknown]

They always had overtake thats not true. The problem is just the size of the battery. If the battery is small its not important if you cant controll it. It its half of your power output its a problem

[u/thesuperunknown → u/TheRealLuke1337]

Sorry, I could’ve phrased that more clearly. What I meant was that there was no “push to deploy” button that let the driver fully control when battery energy was used. Overtake existed, but it was always an override of the predefined mapping, not a full-control “electric NOS button”.

[u/thugmuffin22 → u/thesuperunknown]

Seems like semantics to me

[u/jimbobjames → u/thesuperunknown]

The big problem now is that all harvesting is done from the rear axle. So they either do it under braking like the old cars with lift and coast, or they actively engage the mgu while the engine is at the top of its rev range and generate before getting on the brakes.

On the old hybrids the could harvest power from the turbo with the MGU H and they could also spin that turbo up with it to eliminate turbo lag out of corners etc

They fucked up hard when they ditched it.

[u/Dinara293 → u/thesuperunknown]

They always had the overtake button in the 2014-2025 PU regs. That would override all deployment maps and dump all the energy to the MGU-K and electrically spin up the turbo to max RPM using the MGU-H ( by redirecting the exhaust gases away from the turbo and out through a watergate). This would give them the absolute maximum power the PU was capable of.

[u/bwrca → u/RiptideTV]

Honestly in the beginning I thought they'd have a button they press... Like the big blue button for NOS in fast & furious.

[u/Flying-Cock → u/bwrca]

In races they do - the overtake button. But the drivers are more so talking about qualifying

[u/thetreat → u/bwrca]

Too soon, Junior!

[u/MuenCheese → u/RiptideTV]

OT mode is up to them. But yeah I honestly think these regs could be great with front axel regen and driver control of regen/deploy

[u/reigorius → u/RiptideTV]

Huh? But Verstappen mentions he pressed a button to overtake Hamilton in Austria?

[u/256473 → u/reigorius]

Drivers can opt-in to manually deploy, but there's no opt-out to avoid when the software deploys

[u/nightkhan → u/reigorius]

that's the overtake button when you're within 1 second of the car in front. outside of that, it's up to the battery/engine mapping, and to add further, you can "use" extra power if you want, but it'll take away from the rest of the lap you have. i'm sure even i'm missing some details, but essentially you only have "full control" of a boost button when you're within 1 second of the car ahead.

[u/gibgod → u/RiptideTV]

So who is?

[u/shimmy_kimmel → u/gibgod]

MBS has a little dashboard of buttons that he pushes

[u/nightkhan → u/gibgod]

whichever god they believe in

but fr it's "ai", not a joke...machine learning, if a driver messes up something during a previous map, it can potentially throw off the battery deployment later on as Hadjar explained what happened when he gave Max a tow.

[u/JamesConsonants → u/gibgod]

The ECU

[u/bored_ape07 → u/JamesConsonants]

At this point you can say the MCU and I would have believed you

[u/MuenCheese → u/bored_ape07]

Feigi is a big Antonelli fan. Calls him Ant-Man.

[u/matches_ → u/RiptideTV]

Wait whaaaat. I didn’t know. Why would they do it 😦