Max Verstappen: “Silverstone with the 2026 cars? Just a laugh.”

Two factors will also play a key role at the traditional Silverstone Grand Prix: the delicate handling of the Pirelli tyres and the even more delicate task of energy management.

This is because the Formula 1 drivers face a rather difficult task in England: at the Red Bull Ring in Styria, it was fairly straightforward to charge the on-board battery with sufficient power, thanks to the track’s characteristics.

But Silverstone is a completely different kettle of fish, as Max Verstappen warns: “The Red Bull Ring is quite straightforward for the new race cars because the circuit has several heavy braking zones where you can recover energy.”

“I was in the simulator even before the Austrian Grand Prix to practise for Silverstone. I love this track, but when I was in the sim, it was just laughable. It felt like a completely different track.”

“At Silverstone, you do have long straights, but they’re followed by fast corners, so you can’t really recharge the batteries, and then on the next straight you don’t have much power to use. That’s going to be difficult for all the drivers.”

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“You’ll barely have any battery left over the lap. It’s going to feel completely different to what we’re used to from previous years at Silverstone.”

“It feels unnatural behind the wheel. I mean, if you can’t use the gears half the time as you’re supposed to, then that’s just not how racing should feel.”

“The problem is simply that Silverstone and these cars are almost impossible to reconcile. With straights leading into fast corners, you can’t recharge the battery effectively enough. And when you’re left with just the internal combustion engine, you simply lack the power. So we’ll see the cars slowing down in places where we used to fly past – because we have to recharge the battery and have less power. It’s not exactly thrilling.”