Max Verstappen believes a Red Bull software limitation prevented him from mounting an even stronger challenge for pole position in Madrid, after the four-time Formula 1 world champion qualified third for the Spanish Grand Prix. The Dutchman was fastest through the middle sector but lost decisive time in the final part of the lap, where he said the RB22 could not deploy electrical energy in the way he wanted.
Lando Norris ultimately produced the fastest time in his McLaren MCL40 despite making an error at the final corner, while Max Verstappen finished 0.140 seconds away from pole. The Red Bull driver made no attempt to hide his frustration afterwards, insisting the deficit was not caused by tyre performance but by the way the car’s energy deployment was being controlled.
Max Verstappen loses ground in Madrid’s final sector
The 2026 qualifying trend continued at the Madring, with Mercedes-powered machinery once again at the front as Lando Norris delivered an exceptional final lap. Max Verstappen could only manage the third-fastest time overall, despite producing the quickest sector of anyone through the middle part of the circuit.
The final sector proved decisive. Red Bull had already shown signs of losing performance there during practice, with Madrid telemetry highlighting Max Verstappen’s substantial loss towards the end of the lap before qualifying.
In Q3, Max Verstappen again gained strongly through the middle sector before surrendering time over the closing sequence. According to the Red Bull driver, however, this was not simply a balance issue or the result of running out of tyre performance.
Red Bull software prevents energy deployment change
“Our software is limited and that holds us back a little,” Max Verstappen said. “We don’t have the correct energy deployment in the third sector. I wanted to change it, but we can’t.”
The problem underlines how important electrical energy management has become under Formula 1’s 2026 technical regulations. At the Madring in particular, the interaction between corners taken at or near full throttle and the deployment strategy around the rest of the lap has emerged as a major technical factor.
Ferrari faced a similar need to understand how driver inputs affected energy usage during practice, with the team even encouraging Lewis Hamilton to take Madrid’s Turn 12 flat-out as part of its deployment work.
For Max Verstappen, the frustration was that he believed the tyres still had enough performance to complete the lap strongly. The limitation instead came from the amount and distribution of electrical energy available in the RB22.
“It’s not because of the tyres that we’re losing in the third sector,” Max Verstappen explained. “The tyres could push all the way to the end, but we don’t have the right energy deployment.”
Max Verstappen left frustrated after qualifying third
Asked whether the situation had left him disappointed, Max Verstappen again returned to the same technical limitation.
“Am I frustrated? As I said, I would have liked a different energy deployment, but it wasn’t possible to have it.”
Red Bull’s deployment limitations have already emerged as a recurring theme during the 2026 season, adding another difficulty to an RB22 that has not always allowed Max Verstappen to extract his usual advantage. A wider look at the weaknesses Max Verstappen has faced with the RB22 shows how the Dutchman’s season has increasingly been shaped by the technical characteristics of the car.
Madrid provided another example. Max Verstappen had enough performance to be a genuine factor in the fight for pole and was particularly strong through the middle sector, but without the energy deployment he wanted over the final part of the lap, Red Bull could not convert that pace into the fastest qualifying time.
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