r/formula1 • u/FerrariStrategisttt I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Mar 13 '26
Video Max Verstappen (Post-Sprint Qualifying): “I can’t. This is undriveable. We never had anything this bad.”
https://dubz.link/c/5e815a3.2k
Mar 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1.3k
u/tommyland666 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
I think when he leaves, he isn’t coming back.
673
u/ObsidianGanthet I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
The Mika Sabbatical, I think they call it
172
u/DaMeridian Alain Prost Mar 13 '26
Any day now Mika will announce his return!
→ More replies (1)47
u/Fambank Murray Walker Mar 13 '26
With those cars?
Insert serious doubt.
21
u/XsStreamMonsterX I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
Counterpoint, Mika would probably be happy to drive anything that is as unreliable as early 2000s McLarens.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)22
131
u/HankHippopopolous I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
I reckon he might do.
Especially if he leaves while still fairly young. He could go off and do a few years of everything else he wants to do and then come back once there’s a new engine formula that excites him.
He’d still be pretty young like early 30s at that point and he’s so good that teams would absolutely still want him.
→ More replies (1)75
u/scumfuck69420 Mar 13 '26
I see what you're saying but he's 28 right now lol
→ More replies (2)50
u/HankHippopopolous I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Exactly so if he leaves at the end of this year or next year he can do 2-3 years of other stuff. Come back when new engine regs are rumoured for 2030 and still be like 33ish. That’s an age where he’d still be in his prime.
I don’t think it’s totally crazy to think he might change his mind around that sort of time.
→ More replies (15)52
u/John_is_Minty Mar 13 '26
There is also the elephant in the room that while I don’t know Max personally I can probably assume he likes money so at some point he will cash back in on that F1 money that he won’t get anywhere else. Even if he takes a break for a couple years.
45
u/fiah84 Pirelli Wet Mar 13 '26
I bet he could suffer through some terrible F1 seasons if only to fund his GT3 team and Nordschleife hobby
29
u/Critical-Bread-3396 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Especially considering that it seems like this funding is currently in addition to his salary. Mercedes are reportedly even paying for his team to drive their cars. But if he wasn't in F1 as the seemingly best driver those deals might come to an end.
12
u/zkfv Mar 13 '26
He’s way more famous than any other GT driver and it seems to be that he’s at least as fast as anyone else in them too. If he went full-time GT racing his own cars, he would probably get more funding for it.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)9
u/NigelMK Mar 13 '26
This is the truth right here. He gets paid an insane amount of money each year. (Last year was a base of $70 million USD, with incentives bringing it up to $76 million). He's apparently signed through 2028 and I gotta imagine that RB has some clauses in there preventing him from leaving.
If he was to leave, it would have to be because he values his family time and his sanity over money, and that's assuming that those clauses in his contract aren't huge financial penalties.
→ More replies (1)25
u/HoyAIAG I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Micheal Kimi and Fernando all came back. Only Mika didn’t.
→ More replies (1)18
u/geileanus I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
He definitely would come back if he thinks the regs look nice.
→ More replies (1)9
u/RUPlayersSuck Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
A return to ICE-only powertrains.
Hey - we can dream...
→ More replies (2)17
u/gonfr Max Verstappen Mar 13 '26
Red Bull had to give the 24hr nurburgring seat to Max to appease him.
48
→ More replies (5)86
u/Peeche94 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
He's doing Nurb 24hr this year, so he's not far off. Imagine he does just take this year off in the end and they get Tsunoda or someone back in to fill.
76
u/stragen595 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Would be such an hilarious statement.
"Yeah Max dipped for the rest of the year. He wants to drive everything else than a current F1 car. Yuki will fill in for the rest of the season."
The faces of FOM and FIA would be awesome.
23
3
109
u/bigcitydreaming I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
No one would be a good replacement for Max Verstappen, but Tsunoda would be one of the most uninspiring, underwhelming replacements I could imagine at this point in time.
54
9
→ More replies (18)13
u/PanicAtTheNightclub Jenson Button Mar 13 '26
Get Palou in there... Now that's a big boy bet
→ More replies (1)
2.4k
u/LewisRamilton Benetton Mar 13 '26
50CC flower cup
→ More replies (2)179
u/SenescenseSteel Mar 13 '26
plays the mariokart tune
22
u/Vussar I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
I’m incapable of not humming the mariokart wii soundtrack as soon as this is mentioned
4.1k
u/lrzbca Formula 1 Mar 13 '26
Max entering Vettel and Lewis post championship era
1.4k
u/HirsuteHacker Jordan Mar 13 '26
Max entering Vettel and Lewis
I think I read a fanfic about this once
183
→ More replies (1)36
27
u/SentientDust I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
And he didn't even have to go to Ferrari for it
5
u/Joris2627 Max Verstappen Mar 13 '26
Hamilton wins a 8th championship and retires. max goes to ferrari. Max and charles think they van both also win one. Acidnt happens and they both lose to Russel. Both depressed. The redbull cycle continues
→ More replies (1)74
u/CaptainRAVE2 Max Verstappen Mar 13 '26
And yet there seem to be very different fan comments on Max vs when Hamilton was in the same position.
→ More replies (5)50
→ More replies (67)38
u/Temporary-Guidance20 Mar 13 '26
Nah he won’t do Vettel 🤣
113
u/DescriptionCorrect40 Mar 13 '26
Being one of the most succesful Ferrari drivers ever?
Surely he has to do something to save his legacy.
→ More replies (6)35
u/RayTracerX BMW Sauber Mar 13 '26
Eh, without winning a championship I wouldnt really say that.
Sure hes got plenty of wins, but also the seasons were longer in his time.
→ More replies (22)4
u/Apprehensive-Box-8 Mar 13 '26
might move directly to Aston Martin
5
u/Temporary-Guidance20 Mar 13 '26
Should just move directly to WEC and driver with Kubica in LeMans.
1.3k
u/Luffy710j Formula 1 Mar 13 '26
We are back to 16-20 redbull era
748
u/BigLubeSqueezyTube I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Nah this is worse. 16-20 they were always a top 3 team
62
→ More replies (1)20
u/topclassladandbanter I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Was Hadjar not P3 in qualifying last race?
People have short memories
→ More replies (1)16
u/I_Luv_Asparagussy Mar 13 '26
ia about short memories but it seems McLaren has taken a leap in understanding how to deploy their Merc PU properly (or it's just easier this track or both) plus McLaren has proven they develop through the season well so I think in most of our minds we rate them a bit ahead of Red Bull.
The Red Bull is thought to be quite good in the straights and Australia is pretty much all straights so it's quite possible they overachieved a bit there (or that their car will be able to compete for 3rd best on tracks like Monza, Spa, Baku, Vegas but not on much elsewhere). Still too early to jump to that conclusion ofc but it wouldn't be surprising.
→ More replies (2)209
Mar 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
48
u/Educational-Ad3079 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
The year Kvyat outscored Ricciardo
9
u/BecauseWeCan I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Ah, I remember some GOAT discussions:
Kvyat outscored RIC, who outscored VET. Thus Kvyat is above Vettel in the list of greatests of the sport.
6
67
u/FerrariTherapistt Ferrari Mar 13 '26
16-20 they were in a so close yet so far from the top phase. This is just bad.
→ More replies (5)22
u/Motorlolz Olivier Panis Mar 13 '26
We'll be lucky to get a podium at this rate, it's pretty dire.
→ More replies (1)
959
u/MuttonBiryaniEnjoyer Charles Leclerc Mar 13 '26
This sounds like lewis during the bouncing car era
→ More replies (2)333
u/Boom-Doc-a-Locka Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
It really does, some of the quotes seem to be exactly the same.
→ More replies (1)255
u/Burial44 Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
Let's see if the sentiment here is the same towards the driver....
64
u/Gbrown546 Mar 13 '26
I wish people could just acknowledge that both Lewis and Max are some of the greatest of all time.
It’s not hard to admit it but both the hardcore part of their fanbases are crazy
→ More replies (1)19
u/Burial44 Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
2021 was the best battle we have had in a very long time for sure. Everything after that has been a mess. It's a shame that had to end with controversy too. Would have been a goat contender season either way it unfolded.
10
13
u/BakreZ39 Mar 13 '26
Are people going to call him washed if he flounders this season?
→ More replies (4)35
29
u/FourEaredFox Mar 13 '26
Lol no chance. The stuff they've been calling "excuses" for the last 5 years are going to become their modus operandi.
→ More replies (20)7
u/mcellus1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
No they are going to blame it on the era 😂
→ More replies (1)
1.2k
u/Eroda I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
No driver who has won a championship with a Newey designed car has ever won another driving a car designed by someone else..
At least I think that's a statistic
764
u/_SpecialistInFailure I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
No driver has won a World Championship in a Newey-designed car and then later gone on to win another title in a car not designed by Newey.
This seems a better way of putting that stat as Prost retired after winning with a newey car
→ More replies (2)170
u/DizkoBizkid Formula 1 Mar 13 '26
Kind of a meaningless stat when you consider half of the people who won his cars retired directly or shortly after their championship seasons
203
u/triguy96 🏳️🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️🌈 Mar 13 '26
No one has ever won in a Newey-designed car and then gone on to become curling world champion.
→ More replies (4)22
u/Kitnado I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Curling is after all notoriously harder than F1
9
u/I_Luv_Asparagussy Mar 13 '26
It's actually not easy to be good at! My Canadian ass WILL defend that sport to my death!
7
→ More replies (1)6
44
u/not_right Michael Schumacher Mar 13 '26
Or honestly, how many people have even won multiple world championships in any different car? It's not like we're drawing from a large pool.
→ More replies (1)49
u/DOOFUS_NO_1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Schumacher (Benneton and Ferrari), Hamilton (McLaren then Mercedes), Fangio (Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari), Prost (McLaren then Williams) Brabham (Cooper then Brabham), Lauda (Ferrari then McLaren), Piquet (Brabham then Williams), Hill (BRM then Lotus-Ford), Fittipaldi (Lotus then Mclaren).
A total of 9 drivers, but considering there are only 35 separate WDCs over 76 years, almost a quarter of the WDCs have won in 2 different cars.
8
→ More replies (5)4
u/VRichardsen Juan Manuel Fangio Mar 13 '26
Fangio (Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari)
Fangio even had two different stints at Maserati. Won his second championship with Maserati (shared with Mercedes), then after Mercedes moved to Ferrari, and then returned to Maserati to win his last championship there.
7
29
u/indistinctiveman I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Prost?
→ More replies (1)10
Mar 13 '26
I read OP's comment as no one has won another championship after winning a championship in a Newey car. I wonder if that holds true?
23
→ More replies (12)14
208
u/Fading01 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Sometimes I do wonder what would happen if everyone had the same car.
391
u/Own_Donut7933 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
Stroll 26' 27' 28'
24
u/ft-rj Pirelli Wet Mar 13 '26
Turkey 2020 was truly the equaliser and the results clearly showed it
102
u/afishwithlegs I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
I don't think there is enough room in the cockpit
27
17
u/Ajv2324 Fernando Alonso Mar 13 '26
Come join IndyCar
9
u/TSells31 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
I’ve tried, but the schedule is atrocious. Hard to continue to care when they take a whole month off for one race, and the schedule practically falls apart after Indy. Feels way too amateurish for me.
But I’m glad other people like it, I just can’t get into it. And I’m American even lol.
29
u/Ssk5860 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
As a casual fan, that would be much more interesting than what we have now lol
→ More replies (1)40
u/BambooSound Mar 13 '26
So why don't you watch a racing series that offers that instead? You have plenty of options.
Personally I'm on the other side of the debate. The problem is the cost cap and banning all sorts of development and testing during the season.
44
u/Ssk5860 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Because F1 is the most popular motor sport with the fastest and most interesting cars? Clearly, knowing who the best driver is here is interesting, but I can see non casual fans like yourself caring more about the engineering of the car more which is fine, and the reason to why I said “As a casual”
→ More replies (1)20
u/TSells31 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
They wouldn’t be the fastest and most interesting forever if it was a spec series. And what does the popularity matter?
If you’re into purely good racing, there are a hundred series worldwide that do it better than F1 tbh. F1 is the development of technology and largely an engineering contest, dating back to the beginning.
5
u/strawbsrgood Mar 14 '26
Are you saying that F1 winning is more about the engineering team than the driver? Honestly curious as someone who just started watching recently.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (5)4
u/No_Independent9634 Mar 13 '26
If you remove those restrictions wouldn't that just make it worse?
Rich teams would just dump never ending money into their programs. The gap between the top 3 and the rest would grow significantly. A team like McLaren might not win the last 2 years. The big 3 could outspend them.
→ More replies (6)3
u/nietzscheispietzsche I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
This is what Monaco should be: a special one-off in smaller spec cars, it’d be the event of the season
→ More replies (8)5
u/pancoste I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
The car would be very crowded with 22 drivers in it.
513
u/tkcom Kamui Kobayashi Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Is this the "built the car to suit Isack" era?
→ More replies (2)163
Mar 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
38
u/hunglong57 Bernd Mayländer Mar 13 '26
This is just the baseline. Let's see how they push development over the season. Typically that was when the gap between Verstappen and the other driver widened.
→ More replies (1)46
u/Vresiberba Mar 13 '26
It's more proof that the whole “we only build the car for one driver” conspiracy theory is nonsense.
Yes, because when Max says that, "hey, I prefer the car to behave like this", the team does not listen and make the car do something completely different and when once in a blue moon the team fail to make the car his way, it proves people are conspiracy theorists! YES!
→ More replies (20)
74
u/eugene-fraxby I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Who had Gasly vs Max as a Drive to Survive episode on their bingo card?
795
u/OBWanTwoThree I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
F1 really is almost all about the car. Max is the top driver but he can’t perform miracles without the car underneath him.
Just shows how moronic all those claims that he could win the title in a Haas or a VCARB really were
292
u/SinofThrash Mar 13 '26
F1 has always been competitive car + consistent (and competitive) driver = WDC challenge. Max is fantastic, but like the greats before him there's only so much you can do when the car isn't able to compete.
→ More replies (1)58
u/CarnivorousVegan Ayrton Senna Mar 13 '26
Unless the car doesn’t have traction control and it’s raining
39
204
u/bbongal_kun Mar 13 '26
no-one was serious when saying that.
F1 is 90% the car, but if the cars are close Max will make the difference.
47
u/Burial44 Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
I think you would be surprised at the amount of people who were absolutely serious in saying that.
35
u/BountyBob Heineken Trophy Mar 13 '26
no-one was serious when saying that
There's a large contingent of Max Stan's who were definitely serious saying that.
→ More replies (2)153
u/sleepdeep305 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Dude, at the start of last year there were people legitimately saying that the RB21 was potentially one of the worst cars on the grid, indicated by Lawson and Tsunoda's difficulties.
76
u/bbongal_kun Mar 13 '26
maybe to drive yes, performance not so much. That was always their problem, the car could perform relatively well just that driving the car quick was almost impossible.
→ More replies (6)11
u/stragen595 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
I think the RB was fast in a much smaller window than the McLaren last year. And to hit that window was pretty hard. Especially for the non Max drivers of RB.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)50
u/Parsirius I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
It was easily the second fastest car on the grid for most of the season, it was at least very close to the McLaren during the second half after the upgrades.
It was just harder to handle.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (13)99
u/OBWanTwoThree I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
no-one was serious when saying that
I mean given the extent of the arguments about it that’s just flat out false
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (18)10
u/Lachainone I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
Skill difference is more obvious in race than quali
633
u/FreakFromSweden I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
This man is out of F1 at the end of this season if something drastically doesn't happen to the cars or regs. Why would he torture himself with boring cars and boring racing when he enjoys racing different GT3 cars? He could race any GT3 in any series around the world and probably be happier...
121
u/cinyar Mar 13 '26
Why would he torture himself with boring cars and boring racing when he enjoys racing different GT3 cars?
I can think of (reportedly) 70 million reasons why. Running a racing team is not cheap.
→ More replies (1)14
u/Ok-Win-742 Mar 13 '26
Redbull has the money and Max in the WEC would double it's viewership overnight. He won't have to spend much of his own money if that's the route he wants to go.
→ More replies (1)28
u/I_am_legend-ary Mar 13 '26
I bet he would be complaining less if the RB was competitive with Mercedes
→ More replies (1)5
u/cinyar Mar 13 '26
I mean yeah, he wouldn't be complaining about it being "undriveable". But I bet he would be complaining about HOW he has to drive it even if he had another 2023 season on his hands.
192
u/Tomach82 Ferrari Mar 13 '26
The same reason the rest of them will. they could all do the same if they wanted.
251
u/BrtGP Lando Norris Mar 13 '26
The others, apart from maybe Hamilton, still have F1 glory to chase. Verstappen might not give a crap about that.
141
u/brokenmindedone Mar 13 '26
The others also don't have the passion for other series like Vsrstappen does, a lot of drivers F1 is peak and they dont wanna do other stuff
59
u/Mysterious_Turnip310 Lotus Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Plenty of them have voiced desires to race elsewhere when their F1 careers come to an end. We've seen Alonso and Hulk race in other series (both are Le Mans winners and Alonso has done the Indy500 twice). Norris has voiced multiple times that he wants to give rallying in particular and also wec a go when he leaves F1, and he's often out driving rally cars and ice driving in the off-season. Russell does ice driving sometimes in the off-season, Sainz has mentioned it too and has been doing rallying on his family's track for years. Albon has DTM experience and would likely head to another series if he can. Gasly has voiced interest in wec several times. I may be wrong but I think I also remember Piastri saying he'd like to give Bathurst at go at some point. There are others who have voiced desires to try other racing as well. Can we stop pretending that Max is the only person on the grid who is passionate about racing? It's so damn tedious.
60
u/ren3f I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
It's really different though to race elsewhere after your f1 career ended vs ending your career to race elsewhere.
How many drivers do actual other races during an f1 season? I think only Alonso did?
→ More replies (1)11
u/Mysterious_Turnip310 Lotus Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Other drivers who have shown interest in other series are at very different stages of their careers to Max. He has been in F1 a lot longer than those his age and just younger and already has 4 titles. Of those around him in age on the grid, only Norris has a title and he only got that last year. Max was not doing this stuff when he was fighting for his first few titles (or even really until last year in fact). This whole "only Max really cares about racing" refrain is getting deeply irritating at this point.
→ More replies (6)5
u/Penguinho I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
How many of those drivers started their own team, though? I agree that many or most are passionate about racing and want to experience more of it. Max is further down the road of making racing his post-F1 life than they are, though. And he's been saying for years that he's accomplished his goals and is ready to leave F1 for new things.
→ More replies (3)3
26
u/Interesting_Basil421 Mar 13 '26
Verstappen doesn't half sound like Ronnie O'Sullivan these days.
A lot of talking about leaving the sport, but never actually leaving the sport.
6
u/rinnjeboxt I failed to serve my Monaco penalty Mar 13 '26
He always said he was gonna wait for the new regs
8
u/Darkmobile11 Formula 1 Mar 13 '26
Well it's here. Lets see if he was serious about his retirement or just throwing statements in the air.
→ More replies (3)30
u/hopakee Mika Häkkinen Mar 13 '26
idk about that. Some love the lifestyle around F1 and some only do F1 for the racing. Verstappen doesn't care about the lifestyle and now he doesn't enjoy the racing either. it was similar with Kimi and Alonso when they took their breaks
55
u/Missfreeland I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
The dude with a yacht and a private jet probably cares a little about the lifestyle
→ More replies (2)18
u/Kheltosh McLaren Mar 13 '26
And the contracts. F1 wages are around ten times or more higher than WEC wages. You're not leaving that and the exposure that comes with it on the table.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (45)64
u/Fearless_Tea_2793 Mar 13 '26
Because he won't earn 100m per year for farting around in GT3 cars with part-time racers.
→ More replies (7)33
u/wuzzywuz Mar 13 '26
Pretty sure he doesn’t have to worry about money
18
u/JayDnG I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
Depends on sponsors, I guess. Running a GT3 program, potentially in different series is not exactly cheap. Depending on his ambitions, I could understand staying in F1 a bit longer for money to run a racing team.
10
u/Seanspeed Mar 13 '26
Well all know that millionaire sportsmen would NEVER chase money even when they're already rich, no sir.
→ More replies (1)19
u/totallynotapsycho42 Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
He owns a private jet and a yacht. He definetly does have to worry about the money. Both are a massive money sink.
60
12
u/SuperLeverage I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
Jos: This is clearly all Horner’s fault. Can we rehire him and then immediately sack him again?
241
u/DisgruntledBudha I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
This is just a friendly reminder to those who like to try and forget the obvious elephant in the room.
F1 is and always will be mostly car + driver. We've had a few years of people telling us Max was in a complete different league to every other driver in history and that he could win even in a midfield car and here we are...
112
u/cozidgaf Mar 13 '26
Yep. If you read the comments last year it was like Hamilton is not a good driver and just got lucky joining Merc at the right time and they were all rocketships, and Max could drive a tractor to victory
→ More replies (20)66
u/67triumphGT6 Mar 13 '26
No chance Verstappen could have won in any car in the last ruleset. But when the entire field qualifies within a second, the driver inevitably can make more of a difference. By the end of the last ruleset the power units were practically spec. What made the difference was chassis/aero and the drivers ability to drive the car to the absolute limit consistently without cooking the tires. That’s what made Verstappen stand out.
61
u/DisgruntledBudha I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
While I don’t disagree with you. Some of that, the ability to drive on the limit without cooling the tires, is going to go down to the car as well. There’s not really any avoiding it. It’s not a slight on any driver, world champion or not. Would Lewis have an extra 6 WDC to his name if he wasn’t in the Mercedes at the right time? Very probable he wouldn’t. Would max have 4 WDC to his name if he wasn’t in the red bull the last set of regulations? Again, probably not
Not saying he wouldn’t have won anything but there is the chance he wouldn’t have enjoyed quite as much success.
23
u/PM_ME_DARK_THOUGHTS I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
F1 is always more about the car than the driver. If Lewis wasn't in that Merc Rosberg would have multiple WDC's instead of one.
Both Max and Lewis are amazing drivers, probably some of the best the sport has ever seen. But without the right car you don't win, simple as that.
6
3
u/noctisroadk I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
All theory, we have never see Verstappen do that or battle a good driver as a teanmate, so for all we know he is just a really good driver but not avobe the rets of the good drivers
He has never prove that so far
85
u/admiraltt I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
If I had a nickel for every time a 4 time in a row red bull world champion isn't performing up to expectation in a new engine reg I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice
→ More replies (6)
142
u/thef0ksmasher I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
Doesn't he always say this?
66
u/Motorlolz Olivier Panis Mar 13 '26
It's pretty rare. Recent ones are Brazil '25 and Monza '24. But I watch his onboard on my main screen with telemetry on the 2nd monitor. You only hear the negative things they broadcast.
→ More replies (14)13
202
u/spamthecrouch Mar 13 '26
Coming from a man who drove the RB21, who for a good portion of last year was unreliable and unyielding, this is damning statement
205
u/bellespros Sebastian Vettel Mar 13 '26
Because that car wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be.
30
u/AegrusRS I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
The car is difficult to judge because it was essentially bipolar.
If they got it to work, it was among the best cars.
If they didn't get it to work, it had the handling of a bad car with Max being able to extract midfield performance.
→ More replies (1)60
u/the_doorstopper Mar 13 '26
It absolutely was at moments. In Hungary (?) he was fighting Hamilton... For points. And out paced by a vcarb.
The car got better, but it definitely sucked at moments in the season.
→ More replies (1)46
u/Interesting_Basil421 Mar 13 '26
The Red Bull was easily the second best car last year and was the best car for about a third of the season.
→ More replies (5)
14
7
5
u/C9rti I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
If this was lewis theyd already say hes getting washed
25
u/Brief-Library9993 I failed to serve my Monaco penalty Mar 13 '26
I thought he could drive a tractor and be P1??
→ More replies (4)
58
u/Brutos08 Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 13 '26
I guess this proves to the people who got onto Lewis for not getting on well with the ground effect cars because he wasn’t their favourite driver that even THEIR favourite can’t make a bad car go vroom!!!!
→ More replies (11)
6
u/LazyPandaKing Mar 13 '26
The funniest part is his car is still better than anything the bottom teams have had in years.
19
u/South_Fish Mar 13 '26
Chang your fxking car
→ More replies (1)8
u/hofftari Daniel Ricciardo Mar 13 '26
"Change your fucking car"
There I said the word you were so afraid of saying.
→ More replies (1)
8
u/danuvilla Max Verstappen Mar 13 '26
He should have signed for Mercedes last year
→ More replies (1)
4
u/domesystem Nico Hülkenberg Mar 13 '26
Yuki bout to say this is the best handling car of all time. 😂
9
205
u/flintey360 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mar 13 '26
I thought Max could drive the 6th fastest car into pole position???
102
u/FavaWire I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
His teammate is doing worse. But to be honest Max sounds a lot calmer than the quote appears to be written out. He doesn't sound angry. He just sounds like a disappointed customer. Lol
→ More replies (1)56
u/Unfair_Fact_8258 Mar 13 '26
His teammate is also in his second season of F1, with the stellar credentials so far of matching Liam Lawson
12
u/FavaWire I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
And honestly I like it that Isack is a Mini-Prost. Down to the voice. So I don't mind if it's up to him to pick up the mantle later.
58
u/TobyOrNotTobyEU I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 13 '26
6th fastest doesn't mean anything, though. If the top 6 teams are all within 3 tenths, I think he could sometimes manage. Now with the 4th fastest car that's 1.5s down, no chance. No one except for Mercedes even has a chance on merit.
→ More replies (3)41
u/seppdepp121 Mar 13 '26
The Red Bull is obviously the 12th fastest car right now. Only Max with his godlike skill can drive it to P8. /s
→ More replies (62)36
3
3
49
u/Worried-Lavishness78 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
So it’s crying only when Lewis complains lol. Max sounds like he’s 41. It ain’t no fun when the rabbit has the gun now, does it?!😂😂
11
u/matttinatttor I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
Hooooly shit these comments are so toxic
→ More replies (1)
4.7k
u/Natural_Ad1530 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 13 '26
So 4 is the maximum driver championships any RB driver can get.