In the previous season, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, along with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, were all strong contenders in the Formula 1 championship fight, collectively winning the majority of races.

However, at Silverstone on Saturday, all three drivers found themselves on the periphery, as the ongoing challenges of the 2026-spec cars and power units continued to puzzle both engineers and drivers alike.

While Mercedes and Ferrari led the way in qualifying, Norris, Verstappen, and Piastri could only manage positions six through eight — the quickest among them still nearly 0.8 seconds behind polesitter Kimi Antonelli. All three expressed confusion over their lack of performance.

For Verstappen, persistent issues related to power unit deployment proved especially frustrating. In a rare occurrence, his teammate Isack Hadjar outpaced him, securing fifth place after a smoother qualifying session.

Compounding matters, the RB22’s handling left much to be desired. At one point during qualifying, Verstappen described the car as a “disaster.”

He elaborated, “The car wasn’t great yesterday, and today we didn’t manage to make any real improvements. It felt pretty much the same, but also very slow on the straights. For some reason, my side of the garage had power loss from the very first lap, and around here, when you’re down on power, you spend more time on the straights, which drains the battery faster. That makes things worse in the final sector — out of Turn 15 [Stowe], there was basically no power, so I kept losing time on the straights. Add a poor balance to that, and it was just very, very bad.”

Detailing the handling struggles further, Verstappen added, “In the sprint race, we were getting destroyed in the high-speed sections. I had George [Russell] behind me catching me in dirty air through fast corners, which says a lot. Even in the slower corners, I wasn’t happy with how the car behaved all weekend. There’s clearly a disconnect.”

The lack of horsepower only intensified those difficulties.

“It’s just not going forward; it doesn’t pull like it should. On a track like this, power is crucial, and that makes it even more painful. I tried different setups during qualifying, but the issue stayed the same. There’s definitely a problem, and that worries me. Honestly, for tomorrow, there’s almost no point in racing…”

Such blunt words from the sport’s leading competitor underscored the frustration Verstappen has faced throughout the year, despite finishing a solid second in Austria the previous weekend.

Recently, Verstappen’s name has surfaced in discussions about a potential move to McLaren around 2028. If the Dutchman’s patience with Red Bull is wearing thin, he would not have found much comfort in McLaren’s MCL40s this weekend — cars that swapped their usual papaya livery for a white and green-striped design, honouring Bruce McLaren’s 1966 Monaco debut.

For McLaren, the issue wasn’t the Mercedes power unit but rather a noticeable shortfall in aerodynamic efficiency compared to the front-running teams.

From inside the cockpit, Norris felt his final Q3 lap was strong — though the timing screen suggested otherwise.

“It’s tough; we just don’t have the pace,” Norris told Road & Track. “We were seven-tenths off pole, and honestly, I thought my lap was fantastic. I improved in every corner and got everything out of the car. But we’re just slow — slow on the straights and in all the corners. The car isn’t efficient right now, which makes it unbelievable that we finished P3 yesterday considering we were seven-tenths off. No excuses — the car isn’t good enough, and we know that. We just have to keep working hard.”

As Norris highlighted, Silverstone is a demanding circuit for aerodynamic efficiency, and the blustery conditions only made matters worse. At times, teammate Piastri visibly battled to keep his car stable on track.

“Today’s conditions really exposed our weaknesses,” said Piastri. “When grip levels are consistent, we can compete closely — yesterday we were a tenth away from third in the sprint grid. But today’s conditions were extremely tricky. There’s nowhere to hide here, so while it’s not a big shock that we struggled, being this far off was more than expected.”

Team principal Andrea Stella offered a measured technical perspective.

“This is a circuit where we have less overall grip than we did in Austria,” Stella explained. “The car is sliding a lot. It was not only windy but gusty today, and in such conditions, the cars with the best cornering behaviour and grip gain a big advantage. So it’s not surprising that Ferrari and Mercedes pulled ahead of Red Bull and McLaren today when grip levels were lower.”

It was striking to hear three drivers who collectively won 22 of the 24 races last season sound so dissatisfied — each hoping their teams can recover performance soon. What a dramatic turnaround in just one year.