Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
Formula 1’s commercial rights holder, Liberty Media, would have known when testing started ahead of the 2026 season that they might encounter a massive problem.
Max Verstappen nearly produced the greatest comeback in the history of Formula 1 last year as he chased down Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in pursuit of his fifth consecutive drivers’ championship.
Red Bull’s greatest-ever driver came agonisingly close in a season where all 20 cars were regularly separated by less than one second during qualifying.
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The 2026 regulation changes were seen as a necessary risk, allowing new power unit manufacturers like Red Bull Powertrains and Audi to join Formula 1, but also creating a host of complications.
The new hybrid power units are proving more and more problematic, and Verstappen has not been shy about sharing his thoughts on the matter.
Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have echoed each other’s thoughts on the rule changes, believing that Formula 1 doesn’t feel like Formula 1 anymore.
Liberty Media know how important Verstappen is to the sport’s brand and worldwide appeal, and his comments during testing have done nothing to allay fears that this season might be very underwhelming compared to the previous era of F1.
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Liberty Media ‘highly agitated’ by Max Verstappen’s comments about the 2026 regulations
A report from Motorsport has shared more details about how figures within Formula 1 are feeling after the first official three-day test in Bahrain.
Verstappen has never hidden the fact that he will only continue racing in F1 while he’s still enjoying the sport.
He’s already made his GT3 debut and NLS organisers have changed the date of this year’s qualifier for the Nurburgring 24 Hours to allow Verstappen to compete if he wishes.
The 28-year-old compared Formula 1 to Formula E, and considering rumours have already swirled about Verstappen leaving Red Bull before the end of his contract, although now he may avoid the links to Mercedes and Aston Martin and just walk away altogether.
Is Max Verstappen unfairly painted as a villain?
Red Bull’s technical chief, Pierre Wache, has admitted it’s not his job to help Verstappen enjoy F1, but simply to build the fastest car possible for him to drive.
However, with drivers like Fernando Alonso suggesting that cars are 50km/h slower through the fastest corners in order to recharge their batteries for the longest straights on the track, it’s easy to understand Verstappen’s frustrations.
The report from Motorsport states that commercial rights holder, Liberty Media, is ‘highly agitated by the negative sentiment leaking out of the paddock.’
Lando Norris is among the drivers who haven’t been as harsh as Verstappen in his assessment of the new cars.
Ultimately, if Verstappen, Alonso and Hamilton were so unhappy that they all decided to walk away from F1 at the end of the year, the sport losing three of its four world champions would be an absolute disaster.
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Pierre Wache assesses where Max Verstappen’s Red Bull stands in the 2026 pecking order
Wache was asked at the end of the first three-day test where he believes the Red Bull package stands in the pecking order.
Kimi Antonelli set the fastest time ahead of his teammate George Russell on the final day, with Verstappen and new teammate Isack Hadjar fifth and sixth, more than 1.5 seconds behind.
Timings at this stage of the season are unimportant, with reliability a far more pressing concern, and Racing Bulls’ trouble with the new Red Bull power unit might be an issue that the team have to keep an eye on.
Asked about the first test in Bahrain, Wache said: “It’s difficult to say.
“We are not the benchmark for sure. We see clearly the top three teams, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren are in front of us.
“It looks like, from what our analysis is, we are behind. But where we think we are, it’s difficult to say about the others because the run plan of everybody, the level of fuel they run, the level of power they run, it’s difficult to say.
“But it’s currently our analysis [that Red Bull is fourth-fastest], but it could be wrong, to be honest. We don’t spend too much time on that; we try to focus on how to improve.”
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