The fact that Max Verstappen is no fan of the new breed of 2026 cars and powertrains is certainly no secret. The quadruple world champion has described the all-new formula as like “Mario Kart” and “anti-racing.”
Now he argues that the reason certain teammates are a lot closer is due to the fact it’s much easier to find the limit of the 2026 cars, meaning the driver makes less difference. Last season Yuki Tsunoda, Verstappen’s teammate for all but the first two Grand Prix weekends, was between 0.683 to 0.735 seconds slower than the Dutch driver. This was the biggest gap across the entire grid.
This season Isack Hadjar has been much closer to Max, averaging a deficit of just 0.245s. At the British Grand Prix, the French-Algerian driver achieved his first head-to-head victory against his teammate during qualifying on pure pace, claiming P5 whilst Max started two spots further back.
Immediate Pace for Substitute Drivers
In Zandvoort, Liam Lawson, who had never driven the RB22 before and was standing in for the injured Hadjar, qualified just a tenth behind Verstappen. Yuki Tsunoda, who stepped into Lawson’s seat at Racing Bulls and also had no experience of driving the 2026 cars, was also around a tenth off the pace of his teammate.
The key to understanding this comparison is Tsunoda, who was bordering on incompetent when compared to his teammate in 2025. Yet he steps into the Racing Bulls car for the first time and is right on point with the impressive Arvid Lindblad. These results for Verstappen demonstrate that the 2026 cars have restricted the ability of one driver to be much quicker than another in the same car.
“Especially in qualifying, I think. It’s a lot easier nowadays with these cars to find the limit, because in quite a few places you’re also a bit down on battery. Everything becomes a bit easier to line up,” said Max. “I think that demonstrated it quite well this weekend compared to the previous cars. For me, that’s not a surprise.”
“I think you see it already the whole season. Everyone is always within one tenth, two tenths. If you have a very bad qualifying, three tenths. The margins are always super small,” he suggested. “You can also see that with Yuki, he’s right there straight away.”
Verstappen did praise his stand-in teammate, Lawson, for putting in a “solid performance” throughout the weekend, and it was Lawson who claimed Red Bull’s only points in the Grand Prix after Verstappen crashed out on lap 1.
McLaren Counter-Argument: Energy Deployment as a Skill
Liam Lawson, who was Verstappen’s teammate for the opening two weekends in 2025, also suggested this year’s Red Bull car was less treacherous than its predecessor, the RB21. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, however, does not agree with Verstappen, given the new cars and engines have introduced a whole new skill set required in terms of managing the electrical energy.
Speaking to assembled media in Zandvoort, Stella revealed: “I don’t know about others, but these cars are classified by both our drivers as difficult cars to drive. Definitely, last year we could see much less scatter between the two drivers. Here when a driver is a bit on the back foot then this can be a large amount.”
The McLaren boss goes on to suggest the cars were difficult to drive at the start of the season for differing reasons than now. The drivers were getting used to much lower grip due to smaller tyres and a lot less downforce, along with suffering inconsistencies in terms of how the electrical energy was deployed.
Whilst the drivers have conquered some of their early season troubles, Stella believes the cars remain difficult to drive for other reasons. “Sometimes the frustrating element is that you go on power earlier and now you’re losing deployment later. So, there were several angles from which driving this year’s car was more difficult.”
Norris vs. Piastri: A Widening Teammate Deficit
This is apparent when looking at the difference between the McLaren drivers, with Lando Norris winning the last two Grands Prix at a canter whilst his teammate Oscar Piastri is nowhere. In Hungary, Piastri suffered a DNF but was miles behind his teammate. Then last time out in Zandvoort, he finished down in P6, some 32 seconds behind his victorious teammate.
Norris credited his victory at the Dutch Grand Prix to making the overtake on Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli when he did. The world champion appeared to have mastered the energy deployment better than his rival as he closed in on the Italian.
At the time, Antonelli was within a second of Lewis Hamilton, who had yet to stop and was leading, and so the Mercedes driver had an electrical boost to defend from Norris. Yet Norris pulled out from behind the Mercedes and swept around the outside as though his rival was driving an F2 car. Within a lap he had also dispatched Hamilton, the race leader, and pulled away from the field to win by a comfortable eleven seconds.
Piastri meanwhile was mired towards the front of the midfield. His identical car did not have the pace of Lando Norris, and his energy deployment did not give him any advantage over those he was racing.
Grid-Wide Data Contradicts Verstappen’s Theory
The data suggests that in some cases, the teammates from last season are further apart, rather than closer as Verstappen suggests. The range between the Aston Martin drivers has grown from Alonso being between 0.280s to 0.310s quicker than Lance Stroll last year to 0.380s to 0.420s in 2026.
After stepping in halfway through the 2025 season, Franco Colapinto did well to keep the qualifying gap to his Alpine teammate Gasly to just 0.180s. This year Gasly has asserted his dominance; now the range is between 0.310s to 0.340s.
And maybe Stella has this viewpoint given the results between the McLaren teammates. In 2025, the head-to-head in qualifying was 12–12, and the range which favoured Lando Norris was a mere 0.080s to 0.120s.
This year Piastri appears to have lost his way and is 55 points behind his teammate already. The gap in qualifying has risen to 0.220s, with Norris having adapted more quickly to the energy deployment strategy and active aerodynamics of the 2026 regulations. Norris holds an 8–4 Qualifying advantage over Piastri through the mid-season.
Two perspectives on the 2026 performance ceiling
Ultimately, whether the 2026 regulations have truly lowered the driver skill ceiling depends on which garage you step into. Verstappen’s argument holds water in garages like Red Bull and Racing Bulls, where tighter gaps and Tsunoda’s instant pace suggest a flattened learning curve dictated by battery limits.
Yet, as Andrea Stella points out and the data at McLaren, Aston Martin, and Alpine proves, mastering energy management and active aero has created a brutal new skill set that is actively pulling other driver pairings further apart. The 2026 cars may make finding the absolute limit less punishing, but as Norris’s masterclass in Zandvoort demonstrated, extracting peak performance under the new power units still separates the good drivers from the great ones.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
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