Max Verstappen, George Russell's Bad Reports Go Viral Before Austrian GP
Lewis Hamilton has lost zero points to reliability failures, while Max Verstappen has lost 26 and George Russell has lost 25. That stark contrast, highlighted in a viral graphic published by The Race, tells you almost everything you need to know about why the 2026 Formula 1 championship is shaping up the way it is heading into the Austrian Grand Prix.
The data from The Race's graphic reveals the following points lost to race-ending failures among drivers from the top four teams:
- Max Verstappen: 26 points lost
- George Russell: 25 points lost
- Lando Norris: 20 points lost
- Kimi Antonelli: 18 points lost
- Isack Hadjar, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri: 10 points lost each
- Lewis Hamilton: 0 points lost
In the constructors' battle, the numbers are equally telling:
- Mercedes: 43 points lost
- Red Bull: 36 points lost
- McLaren: 30 points lost
- Ferrari: 10 points lost
According to The Race's data, Mercedes has lost more points than any other top-four team to race-ending mechanical failures, with both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell paying a heavy price so far this season. Russell dropped out while leading the Canadian Grand Prix, while Antonelli's W17 suddenly shut down with a suspected power unit problem shortly after overtaking his teammate for second place in Barcelona.
Which teams and drivers have lost the most points to reliability issues this F1 season?
— The Race (@wearetherace) June 18, 2026
There's no perfect way of measuring that - but here's the points lost from race-ending issues: pic.twitter.com/6GsaPVDqsJ
The reliability issue has not gone unnoticed at the top. Toto Wolff was blunt after Barcelona, warning that Mercedes cannot compete for a championship if a car loses significant points at every other race. "We just can't compete for a championship if every second race, a car is losing fat points. It's one and then the other, and to finish first, first you have to finish. That's just not good enough," the Mercedes team principal said to Sky Sports F1.
Max Verstappen's Frustration Mounts
For Max Verstappen, the numbers tell a different but equally painful story. Seven races into the season, Red Bull sits fourth in the constructors' standings, a distant 173 points behind leaders Mercedes, with zero wins, one podium, and four DNFs, two of which belong to Verstappen (Chinese and Monaco Grands Prix).
2016 world champion Nico Rosberg has also claimed he has heard internally that Red Bull is still struggling since the departure of Adrian Newey, with Verstappen growing increasingly frustrated with the team's current performance, as reported by Nick Golding of RacingNews365.
The Bigger Picture
The viral graphic serves as a sobering snapshot of just how fine the margins are at the top of Formula 1. Antonelli still leads the 2026 F1 drivers' championship with 156 points. However, his advantage over Hamilton has been trimmed to just 41 points, a gap that should be considerably larger were it not for Mercedes' mechanical woes.
For Verstappen, the points lost to reliability in the opening rounds of the season have left him seventh in the standings, a position that does not reflect his raw speed or the car's potential on a good day.
With the European leg of the season now in full swing and upgrades expected from several teams, the battle for the championship is far from settled. But if Mercedes cannot solve its reliability issues, and Red Bull cannot find the performance to close the gap to the top three, the coming rounds could be just as painful as the ones that have already passed.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 5:36 AM.