Max Verstappen Just Embarrassed F1 At The Ring

What does Formula One do now? Now that the green hell has unleashed a reckoning upon them, while they can either learn from it, ignore it, or fight it. I really hope they don't do the third one, but I feel like they might. I saw a cultural shift happen last weekend, where there was no DRS and it was just Max Verstappen at the ring doing his thing. Very primal when you think about it. And 352,000 people watched it around said ring. And that kind of figure is rivaling many Formula One weekends. And what did Formula One do in response to it? Because prior to that, it was all really cutesy. As in, oh, oh, look at Max having fun at the Nürburgring. You know, it's not going to amount to anything. And then immediately afterwards, it was, um, um, what is Formula One? It's about this. It's about that. And Max punching the air. I mean, you could easily tell, and the audience in the replies definitely saw it, that Formula One was absolutely panicking. They suddenly remembered Max had done something enormous. And as I mentioned, the attendance was a record. It was up from 280,000 the previous year when Max wasn't in attendance. So I'm not saying, like, Verstappen doubled or tripled attendance. It was about a 25% bump. But it was certainly something that managed to get the attention of many more people. 72,000 people in one year? All from one Formula One driver deciding that, know what? I've really wanted to do this race. I'm just going to go ahead and do it. Red Bull had no qualms over it. And many people decided to give endurance racing a go and seeing what it's like. This man realizing his dream and then saying, if I can, I would like to do this every year. And yes, it didn't end up in a dream result. Once again, the Nürburgring bit him in the bum. But it just goes to show you, this place is ruthless to everyone. Yeah, that's all very well and good. But what I found really fascinating is that this race did something to many Formula One fans who may not have really known what endurance racing was all about, say, for dipping in and out of the Le Mans 24 hours, but being completely overwhelmed at the whole spectacle. This was a lot more straightforward. But it still got to the point of 24-hour racing. This wasn't a typical endurance racing event around a standard track. For those who only knew F1, or that was their primary watch, they saw cars being driven flat out by drivers who weren't being asked to manage anything except their own focus. They saw racing without a middleman. And they also saw a Dacia Logan. I'm not going to lie. That Dacia was the hero of the event. And that is exactly the point. It's those kind of things. When you go to conventions, you go to festivals, there's always one character or one star attraction that you had no idea would suddenly become a hit. And it suddenly becomes a hit. And everybody loves it and is cheering it on. All of the tweets and responses I saw of, yeah, the Dacia made it to the end, when it looked like it was not going to make it, it just brought new life and vitality to an event that Formula 1 only begs to have. And this is where I have to hold my hand up here. I'd accepted that Formula 1 2026 was just really a modern advancement of what the sport was actually meant to be. As in, I had grown really used to the idea of, yeah, this level of intervention and this level of the pinnacle of technology was just commonplace. I mean, you could easily argue that this has been going on since 2014. And fun fact, I didn't actually really watch much of 2014 and 15. I just didn't. Life got in the way. But maybe when I look back at it, it was just a visceral gut reaction or something. But for some, it's just what we got used to. Now we've added battery management with graphics the audience probably didn't realise are fake, as well as plenty of doodads around boost and active aero. And I'm sure that many accepted it, but reluctantly. But the Nürburgring 24 reminded a lot of people and showed a lot of newcomers there is still a thing called driving. And there's a thing called operating a complex hybrid system within energy constraints across a strategic delta window. Those are very different jobs. And up until now, F1 had treated Max's Nürburgring journey as a bit of a cute side story, as I said earlier. Oh, well, it's not really going to amount to anything. I mean, the calendar, it's not really going to match up. I mean, he's going to be focusing on a world title and what have you. But then that particular story beat became a real narrative when Red Bull said, yeah, you can go and do it. And then they got a team together. And then he did the qualifiers. He didn't ask for special treatment, Max. He went through the proper conduits of every single driver who wishes to attain a Nürburgring licence. And the funny thing was, is that we didn't see anything really about giving commiserations or congratulations for doing so well on the first attempt. It sort of went into a situation where Formula 1 decided that it didn't happen. And a pundit called it out. Tom Coronel, who races at the Nordschleife regularly and who was at the Nürburgring this weekend himself, went on the F1 podcast for Racing News 365 and didn't mince his words. He said this for your consideration. Ahem. You're Formula 1. Formula 1 is the absolute best there is. So you're certainly allowed to promote some of the other motorsport events that are a step below it. I think Formula 1 certainly should have paid attention to it. The F1 argues that the Nürburgring 24 is a rival racing category. Any mention of the race would take fans away from their product. But hold on. I've got to bring out the phone for a second here. Because the rival category framing only works if you accept the premise underneath it. You know, that motorsport audiences are a zero-sum game in that if a person who is a Formula 1 fan watches any other kind of motorsport, then they're dead to Formula 1. As in, oh, they're a lost cause. They should only watch Formula 1. But is that actually how it works, though? Or is that the kind of premise commercial rights holders try and take when they realise that they haven't really got a leg to stand on? To try and justify reasons that otherwise would require a lot more defending? As in, why couldn't you just say a well-done max? But as we know from F1 social media at times, they really do like to put their foot in it. There was no Formula 1 Grand Prix to be had. There was nothing to be cannibalised. There's the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend. And then, of course, all of the legendary stuff around the Indy 500 and the Canadian Grand Prix, all of that stuff is perfectly acceptable. Then why isn't that one? An Indy is a once-in-a-year event. Yeah, and so is the Nürburgring 24. So what's the problem here? Any attention spent elsewhere is attention F1 wouldn't get and, in of itself, cannot be allowed. Commercial paternalism dressed as policy, my friends. And what F1 saw this weekend was specific. Their own world champion doing the thing he spent six months telling the press he can't do inside F1's current ruleset. Flat-out racing. No management of the battery. No yo-yoing. Just driving. And the audience got told they had to choose between watching that and being Formula 1 fans. The premise got tested and the audience answered rather vehemently. They would like to have a little bit of Nürburgring action, thank you very much. Now, okay, I'll bring out the spanner for this next bit since I am not privy to single channels within Formula 1's own communication avenues. But I do have the ability to recognize a pattern because there was something to do with the art of geoblocking in that it was there, in a way, throttling people who wanted to try and see the 24 Hours of Nürburgring but just simply couldn't. And this came from a really big person. The CEO of Shopify, as well. Toby Lutke posted on Twitter during the race, Why on earth is the Nürburgring 24 Hours geoblocked on YouTube for US and Canada? What's the point? That's a very curious situation. This kind of man asking out loud why he can't watch racing. Why? Well, the rights to the Nürburgring 24 in North America belonged to Racer, who paywalled their stream. F1 doesn't control that directly, but this is the same commercial instinct F1 has helped basically make commonplace. You know, rights first, access second, with the fans last. And they really spearheaded this because F1 Digital, the first paywall service that F1 tried out, came in 1997. What we've got today is F1 TV. And we've now got Sky Sports desperately trying to make sure that UK fans cannot easily access the joys of F1 TV. Because I think even Apple's starting to be a little bit more open. I think there's some cross-promotion with Netflix. I think the Canadian Grand Prix's being streamed on Netflix, at least in the US and Canada. That is quite a big deal, actually. And more people have Netflix than Apple TV. Let's remember that. It sort of reminds me when Formula E was on Channel 4. Nice. And then it went behind a paywall for TNT Sports. Not so nice, at least in terms of accessibility. Fans wanted to watch. And in some territories, the absolute result was, no, you can't go and watch it. You'll just have to rely on social media or highlights clips and what have you. And if you want to try and do it, you've really got to go through all the hoops and channels to try and do it. You are going to have to find ways which include VPNs. And this would have been the perfect opportunity for me to get a sponsor for this segment. Damn it. This would have been perfect. Now, I like to talk about regulatory capture. And I've done that a lot in recent times. Certain manufacturers have been trying to take control of Formula 1 through various channels in trying to shape the regulations to how they see fit. With Formula 1 management, the FIA and, of course, the drivers losing a lot of leverage. But one thing I didn't really take into account was the fact that the audience really mattered, too. Some of them tried to watch flat out racing, and they were thwarted by the same commercial framework that F1 pioneered. And then, of course, F1's silence after the Nürburgring 24 hours just tell them that the racing they actually got from that just doesn't exist at the moment. Now, let me put this in front of you for your consideration as well. You can be the best driver in the world, but if you are not in the car of the year, you're going to have a hard time. And you want to know who actually said that? That was Stefan Rappel. That is one of the guys who helped create the concept that is GT3. He was being asked why F1 drivers gravitate toward his platform. And his answer ran during F1's own generational champions, As you can imagine, F1 would have had a problem with that quote because, well, they can't argue with it. It's really not wrong. Because this year's grid is being dominated by Mercedes or Mercedes-powered teams, the team that really managed to get a lot of control over the current rule set for 2026 with the powertrain, this very much at the moment being an engine formula, much like how 2014 was an engine formula, and Mercedes dominated that. When the formula became more aero-driven, Mercedes were not dominant. What does that tell you? In fact, you could even argue that F1 has all been about the best driver, best car combination for yonks now, as in it's been like that for decades, that you can't just have a plucky little upstart be able to defeat the odds in a really underpowered car. I think the closest thing you could possibly have gotten in recent times was Fernando Alonso in 2012, who was driving the fourth best car and nearly won the title. And I think the audience can see it the same way that Stefan did. F1 has to live with that quote being out there in the open and me telling you about it, and they can't really dispute it. Especially considering they are absolutely hyping up the pants of Kimi Antonelli, and who is he? A Mercedes driver. And as that's going on, Verstappen's doing his thing in a GT3 car to track that F1 has long since abandoned since the mid-1970s, and has actually tried to court for a slot on the grid in the near future. But the Nürburgring, what do they say to that? It's not really suitable for our financial situation right now, as in, yeah, we're not gonna be paying through the nose like 20, 30 million dollars a year for that kind of race when we've got that kind of racing which Max is partaking in. Oh, the balls on the track organizers. And Stefan's quotes, they were not a theory either, because the receipts came on track for the fact that Max's car was leading for 20 of the 24 hours. In his first attempt alongside his teammates and against people who live and breathe GT3 machinery, he didn't look like a tourist or a celebrity cameo. He did everything as you were supposed to, and he looked like the thing F1 still markets but increasingly struggles to show. A driver making the difference. And yes, balance of performance is a magic. The car and the team still count the toppy, as does the strategy. But compared with modern F1, the driver-car difference was a lot, lot thinner. As in, the driver could really make that car sing in particular. The audience could see the hands behind the wheel and it wasn't a computer doing it. And I bet you Formula 1 is absolutely bricking it. As in, what are they going to do? They are going to be even more motivated to walk back the 2026 rule set for 27, then 28. And then when we get to the V8s in 2030, which I definitely think will happen now, not 2031, they are going to make things even more analogue. Because he started something, especially with his colleagues, and I will get to that in a moment. All of this, the peak of Formula 1 was back in 22 and 23. And since then, you could even argue, and I guess I have to hold my hand up again, that the audience has been losing out the entire time and this weekend really opened many people's eyes. The 352,000 people in the Eifel region were there because they hadn't been able to get all of this from F1 for years and they found something within this racing category. And I've been writing about why they couldn't get it without writing about what they were missing. This event very much brought back to the fore. F1's response to Verstappen's weekend is being read by the press as either denial or fear. But I think it's something even more specific. Because this sport's had a lot of problems this year, we've talked about that. But I think another one is to do with the art of mediation. Because I think the last year when you could easily say that the difference between driver and car was water thin, was 2010. Since 2011, we have had various bits and bobs that add to the overall spectacle to make overtaking a little bit easier, but it's a different bit of leverage that takes a lot of onus away from the driver. 2011, that brought DRS in response to McLaren's F-duct and Ferrari's S-duct. Then, of course, 2014 with the MGU-H and the MGU-K, now the H has been removed, and look where we are right now. There are so many layers in between the car and the driver, it's gotten to the point where the driver's own instincts that they have been developing since karting are being brought into question, or they just simply have to just forget. Put simply, the driver in this year's F1 car is making fewer driving decisions than at any previous point in the modern era. Yeah, racing does involve management, even its most purest form. But the level of management has gotten out of hand now, to the point where many drivers fear that the car's actually doing a lot of the work for them. The engineering staff is having to make more calls for them, too, as well as the strategists. By the time the driver's foot touches the throttle, the throttle has already been told what it can and can't do. That's the mediation right there I've been talking about. And Verstappen's been saying this for years right now, and Norris has mentioned it here and again, and he's now touched upon it again this week. He told the likes of Racing News 365 this for your consideration. Ahem. We also want F1 to be what we've always grown up seeing, which is flat-out racing, which is not what we've had so far. And then, of course, Helmut Marko's at his Zone 2 pennant, and I know you're probably going to be saying, look, why are you even mentioning this guy? He's not even in Formula 1 anymore. Well, he is still an ambassador at the Red Bull Ring, he is still within the Red Bull fold, and on this particular situation, he is not wrong. Him saying that F1 qualifying had lost its essence under the regulations, and based on the tweets we've had thus far, he has got a point that a lot of it had been doing trying to get back some of the fire within qualifying. And the active drivers are also saying the same story. Lando and Oskar went to the Nordschleife in the build-up to the 24 Hours to drive a McLaren 750S alongside a Pirelli tyre test. Norris called it, the most fun I've had all year. And then we had George Russell telling Motorsport he'd love to race the Ring without a doubt, after Wolff had already declined his request to run an F1 car though. Then there's Kimi Antonelli, the current championship leader, and he has caused a little bit of a stir, not for a bad reason, but in what his own basic ambitions are when it comes to motor racing. In a video that he did with Jules Grenand, he said very plainly that by the end of this year, he would like to have attained his Nordschleife permit, and based on his tone and body language, he was dead serious. But then the deputy team principal Bradley Lord came out telling the publication Nitro that it was a flat-out no, as in, oh, Kimi was probably just joking. Oh, he can come back to us when he's a four-time world champion or something like that. But there you have it, very much no. But all of those drivers are basically saying what the sport is already trying to say, but the teams are already doing it for them. Mediation is very important here. Now, okay, I will add a little bit of context here. Actually, no, wrong thing. No, doubt. There we go. There is good reason why Mercedes are very hesitant about this, because Toto Wolff, he raced around the Nordschleife quite a lot back in his day, and in 2009, he had a terrible accident. And then given Niki Lauda's association with the team and then his 1976 crash, let's just say that people within Brackley, they are extremely sensitive to the Nordschleife. But most importantly, he is a championship asset. And they're also blocking Russell on the Nordschleife to protect what the F1 platform allows. F1's not needed to issue a ban. The teams do that for them. That's the political shape of things. There's no worries from Stefano Dominicali and his team to combat cross-pollination, which used to happen all the time back in the pre-Ecklund era. And then let's not forget the 24 races on the calendar. That adds a lot of structural pressure too, because even Max himself has said, I would love to do some more GT racing, as long as the calendar allows it. Back in the day, when it used to be 16, 17 races a year between March and October, it was probably a lot more accessible to be able to do other racing series if you wanted to. And when you go back even further to the 60s and 70s, there were only like between 8 to 14 races per year up until the 1980s. There was plenty of time to do the other activities. I mean, you saw plenty of F1 drivers doing Formula 2 races, which in and of itself is absolutely bizarre. But hey, if you wanted to do it and there was a seat available and it paid and there was a bit of glory involved, just do it. It was a lot more cavalier. These days, not so much. Everything is very strictly controlled. And I just point you to the Guardian-Norris situation OK, what does F1 do after the green hell's reckoning? Well, I think it could go one of three ways. First, F1 learns and reforms the regulations even further to put the driver back in charge. Second, F1 leaves further into the mediation tactic and trusts that the audience adapts with it and doesn't bleed away anymore. Third, F1 keeps refining and waits for 2030 when they can bring back V8s and a much simplistic and lighter and easier formula to understand. You know what? I think F1's already made the call because I think all of the tweaks they have been making in 2026 are leaning toward the idea of mediation and 2027 even more so because the idea of electrification isn't going away to the point where it was back in 2025 when it was effectively 80-20 in favor of the combustion. It's 60-40, a step in the right direction, but they are not completely abandoning it. Make no mistake, F1 is hoping against hope that the F1 fans who are still around will accept that things are moving, but I really don't see it that way. I do have a lot of foam for that thinking that, yeah, some fans might accept it, some fans may be already too far gone having been battered and bruised and I see a lot of analogies to 2000s NASCAR as well as in chasing the gimmick and then getting burned for it. But there is a somewhat defensible logic in what F1's trying to do right now. I say somewhat. I'm just trying to be fair here. The audience will probably stay. F1's too big to break in one weekend and the Nürburgring 24 hours, like the Indy 500, happens only once a year. Max's contract runs through 28 and based on his language at the moment, he's not about to leave the sport or even move teams. Said teams will keep enforcing their limitations on drivers with not enough star power. Lord basically saying Kimi has to earn the political heft to have sporting autonomy and the mediation, I think, will go a little bit more discreet come the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend, especially if things go really well. But the audience saw something this weekend they didn't know they had been missing out on. Defamiliarization works that way. What do I mean by that? I'm talking about the idea of seeing something completely brand new or being reminded of something you thought was long gone, but is actually still alive and kicking in different categories. And you're thinking, oh my God, why are we not seeing that here? Because once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. And you also can't unsee the fact that Antonelli's leading the F1 World Championship. He's the future of the sport and he's the future of Mercedes. And he is not getting the ability to do what he wants to do in terms of racing. Yes, you might argue for the fact that, well, he got his driving license revoked and all that stuff. He's a menace on the road. Well, you also got to remember that Antonelli is an absolute whiz when it comes to mathematics and statistics and driving. I think he would easily get his permit if he went through the proper channels. I'm pretty sure that Max would encourage any driver who wanted to partake in it to not use their F1 stardom to get their way. If you want to do what I did, you do it the way I did it too. And that is healthy conduct within other motorsports. Respecting it. The drivers want to respect it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we see another Formula One driver trying to do a series that is not necessarily the GT3 Nürburgring 24 hours, but maybe just something a little bit more acceptable. Like how Lance Stroll did so in GT World Challenge at Paul Ricard. As in, if there is an opportunity to do it, just go ahead and do it. Try and remind yourself what racing is all about. And it probably did Lance the world of good. And I'm sure that last weekend did Max the world of good, even if the result itself was not good. And what I find even more tragic is that Mercedes won't even allow Kimi just to get the license, just to say that he could race one day if he wanted to. Yes, Mercedes might point to what happened to Toto and Nikki back in the day and just call it risk management. All right, whatever. But I think many people will be then looking to the more... I wonder if it's just cinnamon or cynicism. Dang it. You know what? I'll just use the cup of copium for now. It might be just down to the idea of F1 trying to tell its drivers where they are allowed to find particular joys. So the only Hail Mary they can think of right now is just to pretend it didn't happen and just to try and remind people what Formula One is about. But yeah, that landed like a ton of brakes. Sorry. Your task is to pay attention to the 2027 Formula One calendar and see how it compares to when next year's 24 hours of Nürburgring happens. And you'll see what F1's next plan of action is. They either learn from it, they ignore it, or they decide to fight it. And you should pay attention to this video over here because I think you are really going to enjoy that one. So I'll just get myself freshened up. I'll be right with you.