Fernando Alonso has reopened one of the season's touchier arguments: is Formula 1 being unfair to Max Verstappen? Speaking to Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo, the Aston Martin veteran framed Verstappen's slide down the order as a failing of the sport rather than the driver.
"Max Verstappen is the best driver on the grid and this year he's going to finish fifth or sixth," Alonso said. "I don't know if F1 is a bit unfair in that sense. But there's no need to waste time explaining to people who don't want to understand."
The numbers behind the complaint are stark. Verstappen sits seventh in the standings, 103 points adrift of leader Kimi Antonelli, and is still without a win after spinning into the gravel at Stowe in the closing laps of the British Grand Prix. A four-time champion reduced to scrapping in the midfield is exactly the kind of storyline that fuels Alonso's point.
Damon Hill wasn't having it. The 1996 world champion answered on Instagram with a flat dismissal: "What a load of rubbish! I strongly disagree with FA here."
Hill and Verstappen have history — he likened Max to Wacky Races villain Dick Dastardly during the fractious 2024 title fight — but his objection here is about the premise, not the person. When Alain Prost compared Verstappen to Niki Lauda, Hill accepted the driver's class while drawing a line: "I agree with that. He never misses a beat. But Lauda drove with his mind, not his fists." Talent, in Hill's telling, has never been the question. A championship decided by whoever built the best car isn't unfairness; it's the formula working as it always has.
That is where the disagreement actually sits, because on Verstappen's ability there is little dispute. Ralf Schumacher, no reliable ally of the Verstappen camp, still rates him "in a league of his own" among the 2026 field. The paddock broadly agrees Max remains the class act on the grid. What splits opinion is whether a season in which the best driver finishes seventh is a scandal or simply the sport.
Alonso, who has spent two decades watching machinery decide titles he felt he deserved, leans toward scandal. Hill sees a driver having a bad year in a bad car — the oldest story in Formula 1. Neither reading changes Verstappen's weekend job: dragging an uncompetitive Red Bull as far up the order as it will go, starting at Spa, where the long straights at least give him somewhere to aim.
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*Originally published on [NewsFormula.one](https://newsformula.one/article/hill-rejects-alonsos-unfair-verdict-on-verstappens-f1-2026). Visit for full coverage.*