Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has identified a clear pattern in Formula 1’s early 2026 season: younger drivers are adapting to the new technical regulations faster than their more experienced counterparts, and the absence of ingrained habits from the previous generation of cars is giving them a competitive edge.
According to Motorsport.com, Steiner made the comments on the Drive to Wynn podcast, singling out Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli as the most striking example of this phenomenon. Antonelli currently leads the championship after back-to-back victories at the Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix, and has emerged as a genuine title threat to his teammate George Russell despite Russell entering the season as the clear favorite.
No Old Habits to Unlearn
Steiner’s core argument centers on the technical gulf between the 2025 and 2026 regulations. The 2026 cars feature radically different aerodynamics — the ground effect philosophy that defined the previous generation is gone — and a power unit with approximately 50% electric power delivery. For drivers who spent years mastering the old formula, adaptation means unlearning reflexes before relearning new ones.
“The key factor for me is how the young drivers adapted to this,” Steiner explained. “You see all of the young drivers, they adapted better than the seasoned drivers. Think about it, we were all amazed but I think it has to do with the technology they just adapt better, they adapt quicker and better to new technologies because they are fresher. They don’t have many bad habits yet which they have to change.”
Antonelli, who came directly into Mercedes without extensive experience in the previous-generation cars, has no such baggage. Russell, by contrast, raced ground effect cars from 2022 through 2025. Steiner suggested this difference is now manifesting in the championship standings.
“Going into the season, for me, George was the absolute favourite, even before testing because it was George Russell’s moment, but then what happened now with these cars is that Kimi has no old habits, while George has to get rid of some habits,” Steiner said. “He drove the old car for quite a long time. And you’re not talking only about the power unit with the EV power and all that stuff, it’s also that the aerodynamics are completely different.”
The PlayStation Generation, Version 2.0
Steiner drew a parallel to the arrival of Max Verstappen’s generation in the mid-2010s, when drivers who grew up on simulators and video games were labeled “PlayStation drivers” for their comfort with complex steering wheel interfaces and electronic systems. He sees the current crop of young drivers — Antonelli, Oliver Bearman, and others — as the next iteration of that trend, raised with even more advanced technology and thus better equipped for the 2026 regulations’ hybrid complexity and active aerodynamics.
“We all said these are the guys who grew up playing on the PlayStation, and they now adapt more to the cars with the complicated steering wheels and all that stuff. This is the next iteration of those guys,” Steiner said. “Everything is evolving. And when Max [Verstappen] and his generation came in, they were called the PlayStation drivers. They can use it. And this is the next generation of drivers who can use this technology so much better because they grew up with more technology.”
Russell’s Challenge: Overwriting Five Years of Muscle Memory
The specific challenge facing Russell and other experienced drivers, according to Steiner, is the absence of ground effect aerodynamics in the 2026 cars. Drivers spent five seasons — 2022 through 2026 preseason — learning how to extract performance from cars that generated downforce primarily through underbody channels and floor design. That knowledge is now obsolete, and the instincts built up over hundreds of race laps must be overridden.
“You need to adapt, and for [Kimi], it’s much easier. He hasn’t got a lot to go back to. For him, everything is new, and he doesn’t have to get rid of anything. He doesn’t need to put effort into losing some habits,” Steiner said. “He can go and drive the car while the other ones have to get away from the ground effect. The ground effect is not there anymore. And I think as a race car driver, if you have driven the ground effect cars for five years, it is not that you can change from one day to the next and say, ‘Oh, this is now different. I just adapt to it.’ You always fall back to some habits.”
Antonelli became the youngest driver to lead the F1 championship with his Japan victory on April 6, 2026. He now holds a points advantage over Russell with 20 races remaining in the season. The next round is the Miami Grand Prix on May 4, 2026, where Russell will have another opportunity to close the gap — or Antonelli will have another chance to prove Steiner’s thesis correct.