Verstappen jokes F1 2026 is a jungle after Spa podium

Max Verstappen called Formula 1 in 2026 a jungle after surviving a near-miss with Charles Leclerc on the Kemmel Straight and salvaging a podium from the Belgian Grand Prix — a result Red Bull had not expected heading into the weekend.

After a difficult Silverstone, team principal Laurent Mekies had braced for more pain at Spa, describing it as an energy-starved circuit. But Verstappen was quick from Friday, qualified on the front row on Saturday — aided, he admitted, by three tenths from Isack Hadjar's slipstream — and briefly led into Eau Rouge on Sunday before the energy situation caught up with him.

Leaving Turn 2 with too much deployment already spent, Verstappen watched his battery gauge and knew the Kemmel Straight would be brutal. He was expecting Kimi Antonelli to come past. Instead, Leclerc arrived at a completely different speed. 'I looked in my mirror and just saw a red rocket coming,' Verstappen said. He held his line deliberately, reasoning that any deviation would have caused what he described as an airplane shunt. The Ferrari went through regardless.

Toto Wolff confirmed that virtually every Mercedes-powered car was short on battery energy on that straight, part of a wider weekend of complaints about the self-learning behaviour of the 2026 power units. Verstappen was unsurprised. 'Welcome to F1 2026,' he said. 'Sometimes it can be a jungle.'

Virtual safety car periods arrived at the wrong moments for the Dutchman, who had already pitted and lost any chance of a genuine fight with Leclerc. The hard tyres also gave him less confidence than the mediums, and he lost too much time in the first half of that stint. He still crossed the line on the podium. With Verstappen sitting seventh in the championship standings on 76 points — 103 adrift of Antonelli — every point matters as the season heads to the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.

First reported by Motorsport.com.