Tom Kristensen (Audi): His verdict on Hamilton, Leclerc, McLaren and Verstappen

Ahead of the summer break, Danish driver Tom Kristensen took the time to discuss numerous aspects of the premier class with SPEEDWEEK.com. In the second part of our interview, the nine-time Le Mans winner talks about the Ferrari stars Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, the McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing champion Max Verstappen.

Tom, Lewis Hamilton is getting on much better with the 2026 Ferrari than he did in 2025 with the winged-car Ferrari. Why is that? Yes , I agree – Hamilton has rediscovered his old form with this generation of racing cars. Lewis is an exceptional Formula 1 driver; he has a natural aggressiveness, he demands a lot from his car and can react to new situations in a flash.

I wouldn’t describe him as a ‘control driver’, but rather as an instinctive driver. He’s always on the lookout for feedback from the car, so to speak, and then makes the most of it. That wasn’t possible with the winged cars. The drivers had a lot of downforce, but it could suddenly drop off, and then even an outstanding driver is powerless.

To make the so-called ‘wing cars’ more docile or predictable, it was sometimes necessary to opt for a set-up that simply didn’t allow for fast lap times. The 2026 generation of racing cars suits Lewis Hamilton’s qualities much better, and that’s evident in his performances.

How do you explain Charles Leclerc’s major problems in the first part of the season? I foundthat strange too. I was at Silverstone and spoke to Leclerc on Friday evening. He told me that he hadn’t been too happy with the car in the sprint qualifying, but already knew that the car would be better in the Grand Prix qualifying.

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From what he said, I gather that at Silverstone, Leclerc found a way to perform better. Energy management on the historic English circuit proved to be as difficult as had been feared. However, this meant that Charles was forced to focus on the issue even more intensively. I suspect that’s when it all clicked into place.

But it’s not just the power unit. Together with his race engineers, Leclerc has also found a set-up that suits him better. I hear that it was all down to the finer details, though – to be honest – I can’t say exactly what Ferrari did there. This combination of both – set-up and power unit – has clearly made a big difference.

What’s your impression of McLaren? We could already see progress from McLaren in Belgium, followed by the win in Hungary. At the same time, the latest improvements from Spa seem to have narrowed the gap to the front-runners.

I reckon the deficit in the first part of the season can be attributed to McLaren’s development schedule as well as to difficulties in managing the Mercedes power unit; they’ve admitted as much to some extent – that they don’t fully understand, in detail, what Mercedes are doing differently and better with the engine at the works team.

With their victory in Hungary, McLaren have shown that they are on the up, and that opens up some interesting prospects for the rest of the World Championship. At the moment, Kimi Antonelli has a considerable lead. But if we reach a situation where suddenly two or three cars finish ahead of Kimi, then things could look very different.

Where do you think Red Bull Racing stand with Max Verstappen? They were a long way off the front at the start of the season, and their performances were inconsistent. Yet the progress made over the past few Grand Prix weekends is obvious.

Max’s situation isn’t easy. Everyone can see how he’s squeezing every last bit of performance out of that car, but those two incidents involving rear wing failures – in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix and in the World Championship race at Silverstone – that sort of thing really gets under your skin as a driver.

That’s the most frustrating feeling of all for a driver, when the car suddenly loses control without any warning and you’re reduced to being nothing more than a passenger.

Red Bull Racing is closing in on the top. The 2026 World Championship train has, of course, already left the station, but the progress made should give the whole team a boost.