Max Verstappen has praised championship leader Kimi Antonelli for a “really impressive” first half of the 2026 season, with the Dutchman conceding that the Mercedes racer has been “rock solid” through the year so far.
After scoring his maiden Grand Prix victory at Round 2 in China, Antonelli embarked on a run of five consecutive wins – becoming the youngest-ever driver to head the Drivers’ standings in the process.
While he has experienced some difficult moments – including a DNF in Barcelona due to a mechanical issue, and another reliability problem at Silverstone where he dropped out of the points – the teenager continues to hold an advantage of 50 points from closest rival Lewis Hamilton.
The season has been tougher, meanwhile, for four-time World Champion Verstappen, who currently sits in P6 of the standings with a deficit of 110 points to Antonelli.
Following a second-place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix before the start of the sport’s summer break, Verstappen namechecked Antonelli when asked which driver had managed to produce the best performance during the first half of the season.
“I think, if you look at the front, Kimi has done a really good job,” the Red Bull driver said. “Really strong, really solid, being the strongest in the team.
“I think, if he just keeps it going – of course, he’s also been very unlucky sometimes, so that’s been a bit of a shame – but as a 19-year-old, so far, I think he’s been rock solid. That’s really impressive to see as an outsider.
“For me, it’s definitely been a bit of a jungle this year, but I’m just trying to enjoy it where I can. Of course, when the car is a bit nicer to drive, you can enjoy it a little bit more.
“But, yeah, overall, a very strong performance [from Antonelli]. It’s nice to see. He’s, first of all, a nice guy and a very strong driver, so that’s a good combination.”
With Red Bull having been off the pace of Antonelli and Mercedes at several events during the first half of the campaign, Verstappen went on to set out the main goals for the Milton Keynes-based outfit when the season resumes.
“We need to first find more overall performance,” he explained. “Then we need to fix our problems, where we sometimes just lose performance over a weekend, or even from the start of the race to the end. So, yeah, that is also actually a big priority.”
