Red Bull’s Max Verstappen believes it would be unfair to🐎 ban the use of Formula 1 engine qualifying modes just because Mercedes is “doing a better job” than its rival꧑s. 

Throughout the V6 hybrid era there has been a suspicion that Mercedes hꦓas been turning up its engine modes in the final segment of qualifying to extract greater performance over one lap, something ♒that has irked rivals Ferrari and Red Bull in recent years. 

The focus on engine mo🅘des came to light once more during the season-opening Aust🐽ralian Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position by 0.7s from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. 

Mercedes downpla🌠yed the influence of so called “party modes” but Hamilton’s significant leap in performance prompted calls from the German manufacturer’s closest rivals for ༒F1 to abolish such modes to ensure drivers qualify and race with the same engine settings. 

“It’s qu🐼ite clear in qualifying they ramp it up, but it has been like this already for the whole e𓃲ra of V6s. It’s not a new story,” Verstappen said during Thursday’s media sessions ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. 

The Dutchman insist💧s🐻 he does not favour the suggestion from his own team that F1 engine modes should be restricted in Parc Ferme before the start of qualifying. 

“They [Mercedes]༺ just do a better job than everyone else so why should you take 🌱it away? It’s not fair to them, but it’s maybe up to F1 to may be change the rules to make it more difficult to keep developing things and stuff like that. 

“You certainly shou💮ldn’t take it away because they are really, really good. It’s unfair to them.𒅌”

When told of Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s frustration regarding the subject, Verstappen replied: “Well✃, [it’s the] same for me. 

“But 𒉰you have to also be honest and you 🌠have to be just clear about it they’re just doing a better job than everyone else. Otherwise, I think we should just use the same engines. But that’s not what everybody wants.”