There is a fundamental misunderstanding that risks distorting the reading of Max Verstappen’s 2026 season: it is not just another regulatory change, a Formula 1 rewriting itself technically, aerodynamically, and in terms of power units. For the four-time world champion, what lies ahead is far more radical. It is, in the truest and least rhetorical sense, a year zero.
In recent months, without a real safeguard, the technical and human universe that accompanied Verstappen in his rise has gradually disintegrated. Not due to a single traumatic rupture, but through a series of departures that, taken together, reveal a structural fracture. Tom Hart, performance engineer, accepted an offer from Williams. David Mart, engine specialist, will join Jonathan Wheatley at Audi. Michael Manning, a key figure in Max’s technical entourage, after some initial hesitation, definitively ended his tenure at Red Bull. These are not mere organizational changes: they are pieces that, day by day, helped build an ecosystem tailored around the Hasselt driver.
The picture becomes even clearer when looking at Red Bull’s “high command.” In less than two years, Adrian Newey, the aforementioned Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner, and finally Helmut Marko have left. Four pillars, each with a different but complementary role: technical vision, sporting management, political power, and talent protection. Newey chose Aston Martin, Wheatley took the Audi opportunity to become team principal, and Horner and Marko were removed in different ways but with the same result. The Red Bull that Verstappen knew, where he was the absolute center of gravity, no longer exists.
Adding to this is an often underestimated but significant factor: Honda. With the shift to the new power unit cycle, Max will lose not only a supplier but a technical partner with whom he had built a deep relationship, based on trust, dialogue, and operational continuity. Here too, it is not just the engine that resets, but a working method that will need to be rebuilt with Ford personnel collaborating on powertrains.
As if that were not enough, even the strongest relationship in the Red Bull garage—the one between Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase—hints at a possible ending. End-of-season team radios in Abu Dhabi suggested that in 2026, they might no longer function as a “de facto pair.” Denials have followed, but the mere fact that the scenario is considered plausible speaks volumes about the moment. Juan Pablo Montoya, as an external but perceptive observer, clarified the point: according to him, Red Bull will not recruit figures from outside, Laurent Mekies is doing a good job, and Lambiase could be promoted to a more managerial role, less tied to the car. While sensible from a corporate perspective, this would force Verstappen to work with a new race engineer, with all the uncertainties that entails.
Here lies the real issue. Max Verstappen has never been just an extraordinarily fast driver. He has always been the pivot of a system designed to enhance, protect, and put him in the ideal conditions to express his talent. In 2026, that system will be dismantled and rebuilt almost from scratch, just as Formula 1 undergoes a technical transformation.
For the first time in years, Max Verstappen may not start from a position of total control. He will have to rebuild references, trust, and shared languages. He will need to adapt to a different Red Bull, a different engine, perhaps a different engineer. This does not necessarily make him less competitive: great champions shine when the ground beneath them is no longer solid. But it is undeniable that 2026 represents a profound discontinuity, perhaps the greatest of his career.
This is far more than a simple rule change. For Max Verstappen, the near future looks a lot like a complete reset—technical, human, and identity-based. And this, for better or worse, is news that can change the balance of Formula 1 more than any new regulation ever could.
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