Max Verstappen will hate the ‘aggressive’ change Pirelli chief has touted for Formula 1’s 2026 tyre compounds

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It’s no secret that one of Red Bull’s weaknesses this year has been their car’s ability to switch on the tyres when it matters.

Max Verstappen has struggled to extract performance from the complicated Pirelli tyres, with him visibly frustrated in the cockpit of his RB21 on occasions.

Pirelli introduced a new softer tyre to their range this year in the form of the C6. While it was originally only designed to be used at low-energy circuits such as Monaco, the tyre manufacturer made adjustments to spice up the racing after one-stops started to become normal.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was the first race to feature soft compounds, and Verstappen was left unhappy with the amount of oversteer his car generated.

He would later complain that Pirelli’s tyres were “over the limit” after they would overheat before a lap had ended in qualifying [via PlanetF1.com].

After Verstappen identified tyre management as a weakness for Red Bull, now Pirelli head Mario Isola has outlined one change they plan on making that might impact the Dutchman even more in 2026, when speaking with The Race.

Pirelli plans more ‘aggressive’ soft tyres for 2026

With F1’s push for narrower and smaller cars next year, Pirelli has latched onto that and pledged to introduce narrower tyres.

The plan is to have the front width reduced by 25mm and rears 30mm narrower compared to the current tyres, saving 1.6kg overall in weight.

Pirelli is also planning structural changes to the tyres in a bid to make them closer to a qualifying tyre, freeing up options for the races.

“What I would like for the future is a C6 with a bigger [lap time] gap to the C5. Now it’s around two tenths of a second and we need to have at least half a second.

“So we want it even more aggressive but with a level of degradation that is similar to what we have now, to help generate different strategies for next year. We are working on a C6 with this target.”

The Pirelli head has also touted changes to the wet tyres, which should enable teams to use them more for racing instead of just running behind the Safety Car.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull should focus on improving tyre management

Pirelli’s intentions are well-meaning, considering teams have often found themselves a set short at races where there is high attrition.

This is what happened with Red Bull most recently in Spain, when Verstappen demanded new tyres during a Safety Car, only for them to have the unfavourable hard tyres left.

Verstappen used up his remaining set of mediums in qualifying because the soft tyres would overheat too much. If Pirelli produces more aggressive compounds for 2026, that could exacerbate the problem even more for the Dutchman.

This is where Red Bull must get on top of their tyre management for next season, although there are questions over whether they can still produce a world championship-winning chassis with the absence of Adrian Newey.