Former World Champion Damon Hill worries F1 heading towards Formula E: "We had a very annoyed Max Verstappen talking about the nature of circuits"

Former F1 driver Damon Hill recently spoke about F1 adding more and more street tracks and how Max Verstappen is not a massive fan of them. Hill expressed concern about F1 gradually going in the direction of Formula E, which mostly has street circuits on its calendar.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Damon Hill talked about how F1 is gradually inculcating Formula E's race calendar in terms of introducing more street tracks.

"So this move towards a tighter, twistier circuit, you know, it is going in the direction of let’s say, Formula E, which has chosen to have its races in city centers and also on very, it has to be said, restricted circuits," Hill said.

Over the years, F1 has added several tracks on the calendar that consist of public roads. These circuits have a massively different character, which some drivers like while others don't. Max Verstappen criticized street tracks during the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP, which was yet another street circuit. Hill pointed this out and continued:

“With the race in Vegas, we had a very annoyed Max Verstappen talking about the nature of circuits and the kind of circuits you’d like to race on. But the fact is that Formula 1 has to adapt to new demands placed on it from a car manufacturing point of view, as well as a government imposing correct environmental questions.”

Before these comments, Hill touched on the way F1 has presented the Madrid circuit for 2026. He said they should have also talked about the new regulations and the difficulties the sport could face in terms of car performance. In 2026, the technical regulations will drastically change when new power units and chassis are introduced.

“I like to watch the sport. I like to watch the developments. The thing that I would just add on the Madrid announcement is that we’ve got new engine regulations coming in and then the talk is of the difficulties they’re going to have in extracting consistent performance from the cars," Hill said.

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Max Verstappen does not believe an F1 car belongs on a street circuit

As mentioned above, Max Verstappen has ranted quite a lot about street tracks in the past. Speaking to The Telegraph in November 2023, he spoke his mind and claimed that an F1 car does not belong on a street circuit. He expressed his love for conventional tracks and said that he enjoys them much more.

"In terms of circuits, for me, real tracks are always more fun to drive," said Verstappen. "People can say what they want about street circuits. But at the end of the day, that’s not where a Formula One car belongs."

In the 2023 F1 season, the three races the Red Bull star was unable to win were on street tracks.