Retirement due to cooling issue only adds to Max Verstappen's dislike of new rules.

Another poor start saw the Dutchman drop five places by the end of the first lap, but he subsequently worked his way through the field, battling drivers he had probably never encountered before, until retiring on Lap 45, while running sixth, with a cooling issue.

A critic of the rules overhaul for well over a year, a pointless afternoon in Shanghai did little to change his opinion of F1 2026.

"It's still terrible," he told reporters. "I don't know, if someone likes this then you really don't know what racing is about," he added. "It's not fun at all. It's playing Mario Kart. This is not racing.

"Look at the racing," he added. "You are boosting past, then you run out of battery the next straight. They boost past you again. For me, it's just a joke."

While the cars themselves are actually better than before, it is the 50/50 split between ICE and electrical power, the need to constantly harvest energy, that is destroying the sport in the Dutchman's eyes, and indeed in the eyes of many other drivers and fans.

As was the case last week, posts on X by the official F1 account praising the race saw negative comments from fans quickly hidden.

The four-time world champion's mood wasn't helped by Mercedes continued domination, which not only recalls the German team's success at the beginning of the hybrid era, but has many wondering if it is sandbagging and has even more up its sleeve.

"It's just Kimi or George that is winning, right?" he said. "It's not really back and forth. They're miles ahead of the field. It's just that Ferrari sometimes has these good starts that they push themselves in front, and then it takes a few laps to sort it all out... like I said, this has nothing to do with racing.

"I would say the same if I would be winning races," he insisted, "because I care about the racing product. It's not about being upset of where I am, because I'm actually fighting even more now, of course. So you get to understand what you have to do and what it is about even more. For me, it's really a joke."

Ably backed by the media, F1 continues to focus on the sheer number of overtakes we are witnessing even though they are basically fake, with one driver having to slow in order to harvest energy, thereby allowing his opponent to pass.

Indeed, as was the case in Melbourne, the TV coverage appeared carefully managed, the onboards cutting away as drivers needed to slow while at full speed on the straights. Meanwhile, radio interaction has all but vanished.

"I hope they don't think like that, because it will eventually ruin the sport," said Verstappen of the overtake tally. "It will come and bite them back in the ass.

"For me, as long as we can just communicate with them and make sure that we are working on some solutions that will help a lot," he added. "But it's also going to be very difficult for everyone to agree, of course.

"Not everyone needs to agree, but most of the people have to agree to make changes. But like I said, it's political, right? Some people feel they have the advantage now, and they want to, of course, use that, rightly so. I get that, I'm not stupid. At the same time, if you look at it for the sport, it's just not good."

With the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races, the sport has the opportunity to make changes. Asked if a few small changes might help, Verstappen said: "You can help it a little bit, but it's fundamentally flawed.

"You have to be a bit careful with how you say these things," he added. "We are talking about it with F1. I think they understand where we are coming from as drivers. I think I speak for most of the drivers. Some, of course, will say it's great because they are winning races, which is fair enough. When you have an advantage, why would you give that up? Because you never know if you're going to have a good car again.

"But if you just speak to most of the drivers, it's not what we like. I don't think it's what the real F1 fans like. Maybe some fans like it, but they don't understand racing. Hopefully we can get rid of this as soon as possible."

While championship leader George Russell has thrown his weight behind the new rules, a revitalised Lewis Hamilton is also in favour of them.

"The cars are easier to follow, much better than past years," said the Briton. "You can get very close. There's not a bad wake where you're losing too much downforce. I think it's the best racing that I've ever experienced in Formula 1."

"We shouldn't do a knee-jerk reaction," added Haas boss, Ayao Komatsu, whose team is currently fourth in the standings, "because if you're going to change something, we should change it once and then get it right."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Shanghai here.