Former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner said he doesn't agree with Max Verstappen's statement that the 2026 rules are anti-racing while insisting the situation can be fixed.

The Dutchman's opinions on the current situation with the 2026 F1 regulations are well documented, as the four-time F1 Champion did not hold back expressing his frustration in classic Verstappen fashion.

Steiner, who led Haas from their establishment in 2016 until the start of 2024, was asked about his opinion about Verstappen's stance.

"I do not agree with him," Steiner said. "I would say there are some issues, and obviously F1 admitted that there are some issues which need to be fixed.

"But is that anti-racing? I don't think so, but it needs to be fixed because what we all miss is the fighting in the corners, the overtaking, where, actually, the drivers can show their skills. We need to get that back," he explained.

"I think it's fixable," Steiner, currently a boss/owner of the KTM MotoGP team, added. "I sometimes simplify things too much, but I even think having less power would help.

"I don't think anybody would notice that there is 50 horsepower less or 100 horsepower less. They're still very fast cars, and that will solve a lot of the problems we have now with the overtaking being done by deploying and recharging."

Evaluation and changing should be an ongoing process

Formula One Management (FOM), the FIA, teams, and drivers have held several meetings in April to try and introduce changes to improve the regulations.

Reflecting on the meetings and their outcome, Steiner believes this effort should be ongoing. He said: "There was a meeting recently with all the teams, the FOM, and the FIA, and I think they came up with some solutions.

"But they need to keep on working at it. F1 is an industry, a sport with a lot of bright people and with a lot of money, so it can be fixed. I think sometimes people want to be negative about it, but I see the positives, and there is a possibility to make this good again."

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali recently admitted that bending over to car manufacturers, which delivered the current rules, was not the right choice, adding that electrification is not the way of the future of motorsport.

Asked about his opinion on electrification in Formula 1, Steiner said: "My top-level thoughts are when this regulation was decided, I was there. The world looked different.

"There was this belief that the car industry will go fully electric, but that has all changed since then. And therefore, these new measures were taken.

"I think the next regulation will bring it back to a combustion engine again, but there will always be an element of an electric engine there, a hybrid.

"But I think at the moment, how it is split 50/50 electric and 50 combustion, it's a little bit too much. It should be more combustion engine, and I think it will go back to that in the near future."

"What I tell fans is just be a little bit patient and everybody will be happy again pretty soon," the 61-year-old concluded.

(Steiner was talking to prediction market experts at Casino.org)