“Not Really a Race”: Outspoken Max Verstappen Advocates Against F1’s Crowd Favorite 2023 Ruling

Formula 1 is in Sao Paulo for the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix. The race weekend in Brazil will have a sprint race along with the free practices, qualification, and the race on Sunday. Sprint races, which are often crowd favorites, were limited to three this year. The number will be doubled in the 2023 season, something which Red Bull star Max Verstappen is not happy about.

As per Motorsport.com, talking about this, Verstappen conveyed, “During every sprint race I’m like: don’t take any damage, make sure you stay in the top three.” [Translated using Google]

“For me, that’s not really racing, because you know there’s a lot more points to be earned in the main race. You take a little more risks in that.” 

“Everyone is so careful, because if you make contact in the fight for, for example, third position and fall back to last place, you know that you are going to have a tough Sunday. You probably don’t take that risk, so it’s not really a race,” further asserted the two-time world champion.

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F1 decided to increase the Sprint races from three to six next year. Talking about this with Motorsport, Verstappen, winner of the 2022 sprint race in Imola also pointed out the less distribution of points after winning the sprint race.

Max Verstappen, who broke multiple records, isn’t interested in stats

The 2022 F1 season has been phenomenal for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman not only wrapped up the F1 titles with three races to go, but has also broken two monumental records this year. However, Verstappen stated that breaking records doesn’t make him excited.

According to PlanetF1, the former Toro Rosso driver conveyed, “I was never really interested in stats. I just live in the moment. I just try to, of course, do the best I can every single weekend.”

Max Verstappen got the record for most wins in a single season with 14 wins after the win in Mexico.

The Dutch driver broke Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher’s records of 13 wins that were set in 2013 and 2004, respectively. Moreover, Verstappen has become the only driver to pick up as many as 416 points in a season.

WATCH THIS STORY: Max Verstappen: ‘Is my title tarnished? Not at all. I really deserved it’

With chances to go higher up, no driver has ever managed to amass the same number of points in the history of Formula 1. With one sprint race, apart from two races, the points haul limit could be extended further.