Verstappen’s striking claim: ‘We’re all finding illegal performance’

The 2025 Formula 1 season ended with a cinematic flourish at Yas Marina, as Lando Norris snatched his first world title from Max Verstappen by a razor-thin margin of just two points. But weeks after the dust has settled, a dubious narrative is emerging from the Red Bull camp – one that paints the entire paddock as a hive of technical rule-breaking.

Verstappen, who mounted a ferocious late-season charge with six wins in the final ten races, benefited immensely from McLaren’s dramatic double disqualification in Las Vegas.

That night, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were stripped of their second and fourth-place finishes after random FIA checks found their rear skid blocks to be thinner than the legal 9mm limit.

“That was an early Christmas present for me,” Verstappen told Viaplay with his trademark bluntness.

“It at least made it a bit more exciting. Otherwise you wouldn’t have talked about Abu Dhabi being so close. For Formula 1, I think it was positive – and for me.”

Those disqualifications were not isolated incidents. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were stripped of their results in China for separate technical breaches, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also fell foul of the minimum weight rule.

The pattern only added fuel to Verstappen’s growing frustration with how – and how often – cars are scrutinised.

‘We’re all finding illegal performance’

Post-race inspections in Formula 1 are conducted at random, a system Verstappen believes paints a misleading picture of compliance. In his view, the relentless hunt for performance pushes every team toward the edge – and often beyond it.

“Of course, you always try to find the limit. We all do,” he explained. “And sometimes you get away with it… you’re not always checked.

“I think if you check that every race, then half of them are definitely under.”

It was a striking claim – and one that suggests Verstappen sees illegality not as an exception, but as an inevitable by-product of modern F1’s obsession with marginal gains.

“We could run these things to the deck if we wanted to and have no legality issues, but then we’re all finding illegal performance,” he said.

For Verstappen, the issue is less about teams bending the rules and more about how the rules are enforced. Random checks, he argues, create winners and losers by chance rather than fairness.

“I think the main thing for me is, I don’t like that it’s random,” he added.

“I’d almost rather have 20 cars get checked every weekend and then you’d have a fair game, but it’s that randomly selected version that’s a bit tricky. But yeah, I mean rules are rules.”

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Even then, he acknowledged the reality facing the FIA.

“Then [if you were to check all 20 cars], you’d need a lot of people; that’s just not possible.”

Verstappen’s comments pull the curtain back on an uncomfortable truth: Formula 1’s competitive edge is often forged in the grey areas.

His suggestion that “half” the grid would be disqualified under full scrutiny may be provocative – but in a sport defined by pushing limits, it’s a warning that may linger long after the chequered flag has fallen.

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