Max Verstappen has not suddenly become a worse Formula 1 driver. His difficult 2026 season tells a more complex story: a four-time world champion struggling to extract his usual advantage from a Red Bull RB22 that appears increasingly distant from the characteristics that have traditionally allowed him to perform at his best.
One Grand Prix is never enough to judge the calibre of a driver, just as a single race cannot define a wider trend. That is even more important when the driver under scrutiny is Max Verstappen, a man who won four consecutive world championships, ended the era of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominance and later challenged Lando Norris almost until the final race of the season in which the British driver eventually became world champion.
Yet 2026 is telling a different story. It is not the story of a diminished driver – that would be a premature and misguided conclusion – but of a Max Verstappen who, for the first time in several years, appears unable to find the key that fully unlocks his talent. The RB22 does not give him the dynamic behaviour he became accustomed to, while Formula 1’s new technical regulations appear to have fundamentally changed the environment in which the Dutchman built much of his superiority.
Max Verstappen remains elite, but the RB22 is limiting his strengths
Perhaps the most important point is precisely this: Max Verstappen continues to be regarded, in terms of pure ability, as the strongest driver on the current grid, but in 2026 he has been unable to translate that perceived advantage into the performances and results seen during his championship-winning years.
After 12 races, Verstappen is still without a victory. Part of that is beyond his control because Red Bull clearly does not possess the technical package required to dominate, but there is another element too: at this stage, Max Verstappen is not compensating for the car’s shortcomings as consistently as he managed to do in the past.
That has left the Dutchman well away from the top of the 2026 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship and facing a very different competitive reality from the one he experienced during his title-winning run.
An RB22 that does not speak Max Verstappen’s language
To understand the Dutchman’s difficulties, it is necessary to start with his driving style. Max Verstappen built an important part of his reputation on his ability to control extremely sensitive cars, particularly at the front end.
He likes a car with a very precise front axle that responds immediately on corner entry, combined with a rear end that is free enough to allow him to control lateral movement using the throttle, steering input and his extraordinary sensitivity to the car’s behaviour.
It is a very particular way of driving. Max Verstappen has never simply needed a stable car. He needs a machine that allows him to anticipate the corner entry, commit aggressively on turn-in and then manage the rear axle at the limit.
That ability has been one of the reasons why, over the years, he has frequently created enormous gaps to his team-mates.
The RB22, however, appears to speak a different language. The car seems more inclined towards understeer and does not consistently provide the front-end response and slightly more mobile rear that allowed Verstappen to drive according to his natural characteristics.
The consequence is not limited to lap time. The deeper problem is confidence.
When a driver cannot properly feel what the car underneath him is going to do, attacking the limit with the same instinctive confidence becomes far more difficult. For Verstappen this is particularly important because such a large part of his performance has traditionally come from his ability to reach the car’s limit and occasionally step beyond it without losing control.
In 2026, that comfort zone appears to have narrowed.
Max Verstappen’s mistakes may be a symptom rather than the cause
The Dutch Grand Prix provided a particularly clear snapshot of Verstappen’s current situation. His race was effectively over on the opening lap when, on a slightly damp circuit, he made an error that he immediately acknowledged over the radio.
It was an especially painful conclusion to a weekend in which Max Verstappen had prepared for his final home Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
The important point, however, is not one isolated mistake. It is how frequently such moments are beginning to appear.
During 2026, Verstappen has made more errors than Formula 1 had become accustomed to seeing from him, both in qualifying and in races. Some have been minor, others more costly. Collectively, they have affected his championship position and prevented him from converting every opportunity into a result beyond the apparent potential of the car.
That is where the contrast with the Max Verstappen of recent seasons becomes most visible.
The driver Formula 1 had become accustomed to watching often made the greatest difference precisely when his car was not perfect. His ability to outperform the machinery became almost routine: take a car that was not necessarily dominant and produce a result that, on paper, seemed beyond it.
But outperforming a car comes at a price. When a driver is constantly operating beyond the comfortable limit of the machinery, the margin for error becomes smaller. If the car then fails to provide the necessary feeling and confidence, that margin becomes narrower still.
That appears to be exactly what is happening to Max Verstappen in 2026.
Liam Lawson offered another clue to Verstappen’s difficulties
An interesting indication also emerged from Liam Lawson’s temporary promotion to Red Bull, where he replaced the injured Isack Hadjar. Hadjar was ruled out of Zandvoort after suffering a wrist injury, a setback linked to a boxing workout during the summer break.
Liam Lawson qualified only a few tenths behind Max Verstappen and, for as long as his race lasted, was able to remain close to him during their opening-lap battle.
That should not be dismissed as insignificant. Verstappen built part of his reputation on the enormous margins he was capable of establishing over his team-mates. Not every weekend, of course, but often enough for the difference to become immediately noticeable.
Isack Hadjar has generally been beaten by Verstappen this season as well, but not by the vast margins seen against some of Max Verstappen’s previous team-mates.
The fact that a driver stepping into the car temporarily could get relatively close so quickly represents another clue to the difficulties Verstappen is experiencing. It does not mean Liam Lawson has suddenly become a better driver than Max Verstappen. It suggests that the current Red Bull is preventing Max from exploiting the full scale of his competitive advantage.
The 2026 F1 regulations have changed Verstappen’s playing field
There is another important factor to consider: the new generation of Formula 1.
The 2026 cars require much more sophisticated management of electrical energy and deployment, fundamentally changing how a driver must construct a lap and manage a race. Finding the aerodynamic and mechanical limit of the car is no longer the only challenge. Drivers must continuously manage energy, harvesting, deployment and the behaviour of the car around those systems.
Max Verstappen has always distinguished himself with an extremely aggressive, instinctive style built heavily around feel. It is possible that this generation of Formula 1 machinery requires him to sacrifice part of that natural approach.
It is too early to establish whether this is a structural problem or simply a period of adaptation. But the picture in 2026 is becoming increasingly clear: the new regulations do not appear to emphasise the same characteristics that made Verstappen so dominant during the previous era.
And perhaps the problem is not simply Verstappen.
The RB22 may simply have been born as the wrong kind of car for him. A Formula 1 car that lacks the dynamic characteristics preferred by its lead driver can become an extremely difficult limitation to overcome, particularly when that driver has spent years developing an almost symbiotic relationship with a specific type of handling behaviour.
Max Verstappen’s Red Bull contract to 2030 raises expectations
Against that backdrop, Max Verstappen’s new Red Bull contract carries even greater significance. The Dutchman extended his previous agreement and has now committed to the team until the end of 2030.
It represents an enormous investment from Red Bull, with reports and speculation placing his annual salary above $100 million.
Of course, such a financial commitment cannot be judged purely on race victories. Max Verstappen is both a sporting and technical asset and a leader around whom Red Bull has constructed a central part of its Formula 1 identity.
But precisely because of that status, the expectations become even greater following his renewal.
Max Verstappen needs to return to being the driving force who not only pushes a car beyond its natural limit but also helps indicate the technical direction the team should follow. Red Bull needs to create a car that once again speaks his language.
The greatness of Verstappen was never simply about winning when he possessed the fastest car. It was also about his capacity to drag Red Bull beyond the performance level the machinery appeared capable of delivering.
In 2026, that is not happening with the same frequency.
Did Max Verstappen make the right choice by staying at Red Bull?
That inevitably raises another question: should Max Verstappen have looked elsewhere?
Mercedes pursued the Dutchman with considerable interest and, given the scale of Formula 1’s regulatory change, moving to a different environment could have represented an intriguing option. Mercedes itself continues to develop its 2026 package, with Toto Wolff acknowledging that the W17 still contains untapped potential.
Leaving his comfort zone and testing himself within a different organisation could have provided Verstappen with fresh motivation. It could also have offered an opportunity to discover how much of his exceptional performance was linked to the environment developed around him at Milton Keynes.
Max Verstappen chose differently.
He decided to remain with the team that nurtured him, brought him into its Formula 1 programme and ultimately turned him into a world champion. It is an understandable decision, including on an emotional level.
But today that choice looks more demanding. Red Bull must prove that it is still capable of building a championship-winning car around Verstappen. The four-time world champion, in turn, must prove that he can still drive the project forwards.
Max Verstappen faces a different kind of challenge in 2026
There is no reason to diminish the achievements or ability of the Dutch champion. Doing so would be absurd after everything he has accomplished, especially considering his age. At the same time, ignoring the signs emerging during 2026 would be equally misguided.
This season has confronted Max Verstappen with a challenge unlike those he faced during his dominant years.
He does not simply have to beat his rivals. First, he has to rediscover himself within a Formula 1 environment that appears to have been built around different assumptions from those that previously amplified his greatest strengths.
Can he adapt? Considering the driver in question, the answer is probably yes.
For now, however, the picture is less clear than it once was. Max Verstappen remains an extraordinary Formula 1 driver, but for the first time in a long while, it seems to be the driver who is chasing the car rather than the car following the driver.
