Max Verstappen responds to rumours of F1 2026 engine trick

Max Verstappen has reacted to rumours about teams finding a loophole in the 2026 F1 engine regulations.

The build-up to winter testing and the 2026 F1 season has been dominated by talk that some power unit manufacturers have found a clever trick concerning thermal expansion.

Mercedes and Red Bull have been accused of designing their 2026 engines to be compliant with the 16:1 compression ratio limit at ambient temperatures, but exceeding that number when hot, potentially handing them a performance edge.

Four-time world champion Verstappen insists he is playing little attention to the chatter.

“It's impossible to know,” Verstappen told Bloomberg.

“Everyone is just trying everything they can and from our side, especially from my side, I have to focus on the driving.

“I'm not there to be the engine technician will explain everything in detail to you.

“At the end of the day, it's also something between the FIA and the engine manufacturers to sort out.

“I drive the car, and I trust that from our side, we always try to do our very best to get the most performance out of the engine.”

Red Bull downplay ‘noise’

Red Bull themselves are confident their new F1 power unit, their first produced in-house, is legal.

Speaking at the team’s 2026 launch in Detroit, Red Bull Powertrains director Ben Hodgkinson described the early controversy as being “a lot of noise about nothing”.

“I think there's some nervousness from various power unit manufacturers that there might be some clever engineering going on in some teams,” he said.

“I'm not quite sure how much of it to listen to, to be honest. I've been doing this a very long time and it's almost just noise. You just have to play your own race really.

“I know what we're doing, and I'm confident that what we're doing is legal. Of course, we've taken it right to the very limit of what the regulations allow. I'd be surprised if everyone hasn't done that.

“My honest feeling is that it's a lot of noise about nothing. I expect everyone's going to be sitting at 16, that's what I really expect.”