Verstappen: Fans don't care about tyres

Max Verstappen says Formula 1's tyre compounds are too complicated and doubts that fans care about the huge range available to teams across the season. Pirelli introduced seven slick compounds for the 2018 season, giving teams a strategic headache at races already this year.

Both the Bahrain and Chinese Grands Prix were won amid conflicting tyre strategies.

Sebastian Vettel managed to eke an unlikely 39 laps out of soft tyres in Bahrain, before pitting for the same compound in Shanghai gave Daniel Ricciardo a distinct advantage as he raced to a victory that perhaps ought to have been Verstappen's - if not for two failed overtakes.

Despite the layer of intrigue, Verstappen believes the regulations should be made much simpler to help fans understand the action better.

"I would only like to see a soft and a hard tyre [at races]. Ultimately people do not have to know if it's ultrasoft or supersoft," Verstappen said.

"When you go to a track and you take an ultrasoft and a soft, then you call the ultrasoft a soft one and the soft one will be the hard tyre. I think people do not care how soft the tyre really is."

Overtaking has been a sore subject in Verstappen's season, with contact ending his Bahrain Grand Prix and then leaving him without a victory or podium that he perhaps had deserved in Shanghai.

The Dutchman believes regulation changes made ahead of the 2017 season as spoiled on-track action.

"It was a lot more fun in 2016," he added. "You could follow each other better and, in some way, it was more gratifying.

"Since 2017 it's a lot harder and less fun to really race each other. The breaking distance is shorter and it's just very hard to follow each other The car can also make unexpected movements and suddenly break out."