Lewis Hamilton and others confirm that energy management is going to be a significant issue at Silverstone this weekend.

Speaking in Austria, Verstappen revealed that simulator runs in preparation for his weekend left him laughing.

"I love the track," he told reporters, "but I did a few laps on the simulator and I just started laughing. It felt like a different track, to be honest, you barely have battery around the lap. It's just constantly flat.

"It's going to feel very different compared to what we are used to around Silverstone, because of the layout of the track," he warned. "Here you have long straights and big braking zones, so you can charge the battery," he said, of the Red Bull Ring. "There you have long straights but in a fast corner, for example, so you can't really charge the batteries, and then the next straight you don't have a lot energy to spend. It's going to be a tough one."

"I think this is going to be the most unprecedented weekend in terms of the power deployment," Lewis Hamilton told reporters at the Northamptonshire track today. "All us drivers have been talking on the drivers' chat, about how poor the power is going to be through this track.

"We run out of battery power," he added. "There's only a few corners to charge the engine, so the K will be switched off for a large portion of the lap and that's where we will struggle probably the most. The deficit could be twice as big.

"Honestly, I think it's going to be huge," he insisted. "If you look at the speed traces, we start losing deployment going into Copse. So, Copse, normally engine's screaming as you go into Copse and you're holding on for dear life as you go through there flat out. This year, the engine will be coasting down most likely. We'll be downshifting from seventh to eighth whilst full throttle, trying to keep the engine revs higher, and it'll be a long, long straight from 9 to 10 with no deployment, basically.

"And then Maggots and Becketts is just not going to feel the same because I think you have to lift and coast or something through there for a period of time. So, it's just a completely different track.

"We'll see tomorrow. No doubt we'll still get to enjoy it through certain elements of the track where you're not power limited, but the best part of the track is those Maggots and Becketts and Copse and Stowe, and in those places the power is just dropping. So, I hope it's something they can rectify for next year.

"I think tomorrow will be interesting to see," said the seven-time world champion. "I mean, the previous years when we had DRS, you saw different deployment strategies from different people. I think already in the last race you heard a couple of drivers talk about us having potentially different deployment. I think it was Kimi maybe, so that he nearly drove into the back of Charles or something like that.

"We are constantly working on it, we're constantly evolving. Everyone's working really hard to understand it and to make sure we arrive at the best deployment strategy we can have and most efficient. But more often than not, you get out of the session and you realise that there's areas that we can improve on, so it's just how quick we can adapt. It's just all about being as adaptive as you can be."

"I think most of the drivers feel probably a bit sad," said teammate Charles Leclerc. "Seeing the speed trace, also trying the track at the simulator, these were tracks where actually, I think, the bravest ones in qualifying made a difference, because you get into the high-speed corners with quite a lot of power and you need to play with the limits of the car at very high speed.

"Now the high-speed corners are more medium-speed corners, because we have a lot of clipping. I don't know exactly what to expect. I have an idea, but I'm pretty sure it won't feel as special as it used to be."

"Because of how we generate our power nowadays, this track layout, unfortunately, it's just not suited for it because of all the continuous long straights and fast corners," said Verstappen, "you don't really dab the brake or whatever, so you can't really recharge enough.

"When you rely only on the ICE, you don't have enough power," he added. "So, in a lot of races around the lap, you basically just slow down a lot because that layout is just not made for the current formula of the engine. I think it's as simple as that.

"Some corners are completely different than last year, for example, and that also makes it a lot more easy to get around the lap, but at the same time, it's quite painful because all your inputs matter even more. It's just, what can I say, not the most exciting."

"I think the next two races are going to be a different experience than what we've been used to driving," said Fernando Alonso of Silverstone and Spa. "Beautiful circuits in the past, especially with the ground-effect cars.

"I think Silverstone was probably the best of the circuits, suiting that car perfectly," he added. "This year is going to be very different and not fun to drive the cars. Looking at the simulator laps and things like that it's going to be quite sad, I think, for the drivers, but also for the spectators."

The controversial drone footage introduced in Austria will no doubt be much in use this weekend, as F1 seeks to avoid on-board confirmation of the drivers' warnings and instead make it all look incredibly exciting courtesy of deft camera work, aka smoke and mirrors.

It was bad enough when drivers were having to lift-off on long, fast straights in order to recharge their batteries, now they will be lifting and coasting through one of the most famous complexes on the calendar.

"When you have the de-rate on the corner, it is a little bit worse experience than just at the end of the straights," explained Alonso. "Because you used to have, in your memory, you used to remember those corners being very challenging and you feel the G-forces, it was physically demanding into those corners. And now it is just much slower.

"The problem when you de-rate on the corners is also that your drag level is higher," he continued. "You have the rolling resistance from the tyres turning the wheels. So, you lose the speed by the pure drag of the car, but you lose extra speed because you are turning the car. So, it doubles the effect on the corner."

"I think Sunday will be exciting," said 2025 winner, Lando Norris. "On the outside, I think it will be great.

"But Copse will certainly not be quite the same challenge it was over the last few years," he added. "Maggots, Becketts, maybe not quite the same challenge, but it'll still be quick. I think it'll still be good to watch.

"You're still going to have some zones where you're decelerating for longer periods than what you would like," he admitted, "but that's just reality of what we have nowadays.

"It will still be good," he insisted. "It's still Silverstone. We're still in Formula One. So in the end of the day, we can't complain too much."

And if the drones fail to work their magic there's always the pre-race outing in the Lego cars, that should keep the punters entertained, and will probably provide the drivers with more of a challenge than their race cars.

Like we said, smoke and mirrors.