Max Verstappen needs ‘rulebook in the car’ due to ‘over-regulated’ F1

Max Verstappen has joked he needs a rulebook in the car with him due to how “over-regulated” F1 has become.

The reigning world champion controversially clashed with F1 title rival Lando Norris at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix in an incident which has brought the sport’s racing rules into the spotlight. 

Norris lost a podium finish when he was hit with a five-second penalty for overtaking Verstappen off track after both drivers ran wide at Turn 12 while battling for third place with four laps remaining at COTA.

Red Bull’s Verstappen, who himself escaped punishment for forcing Norris wide at Turn 1 during the start of Sunday’s race, believes F1’s racing guidelines are getting too complicated.

“I think we are getting to a stage where I almost need the book in the car,” the Dutchman said ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

“That's how it is. I mean, I think if you look, of course, over the years, the book has grown quite a lot with more rules.”

Asked if he thinks about F1’s guidelines while he is racing, Verstappen replied: “Yeah, of course. When you have the situation like we have with the racing guidelines now, they try and specify so many things.

“It is definitely over-regulated, but then I also can see the other point of if we take rules away, and then there is an incident, it will be ‘oh we need more rules, we need to be stronger on this’.

“It's always the same thing, because in the past we had maybe some lesser rules, and then you have the same argument. No, we need to be stronger on this or that. It's always the same story.”

Verstappen heads into the weekend 57 points clear of Norris in the championship standings with five grands prix and two sprint events remaining this year.