Oct.11 (GMM) Max Verstappen’s late-season resurgence has become a warning for 2027 amid another dominant weekend in Singapore.
Earlier in the season, the Red Bull driver looked likely to go through 2026 without a victory at all.
Now, after winning at Sepang, Verstappen has taken Sprint pole, won the Sprint and secured pole for Sunday’s Singapore GP.
“When you see where we stood at the start of the season…” Verstappen said after claiming his 50th Formula 1 pole.
“This is very important for next year. You see that some teams are still hesitant about certain aspects of new updates, whereas everything is working well for us.”
“The fact that everything turned out well is very positive.”
Red Bull’s turnaround has been driven by its recent upgrade. Oscar Piastri said in Singapore: “I think whatever Red Bull put on their car in Baku clearly was big.”
Lewis Hamilton agreed after qualifying.
“Red Bull have done a fantastic job,” said the Ferrari driver.
“I think they brought an upgrade in Baku which has really put them at the front.”
Team boss Laurent Mekies is encouraged because the pace has carried across very different circuits.
“What gives us hope is that these are three quite different racetracks, yet we were competitive and capable of winning every time,” he said.
The turnaround is especially striking because Verstappen has admitted the opening phase of 2026 was so difficult that retirement seriously crossed his mind.
“The truth is that I’ve had a really tough time,” he told De Telegraaf.
“Especially in the first few weekends of this season. I’ve never felt like that before.”
But Verstappen now points to Red Bull’s forthcoming new wind tunnel as another reason for optimism.
“The most important thing for next year is that we can use the new wind tunnel,” said the quadruple world champion.
Toto Wolff admitted Red Bull’s recovery has surprised Mercedes.
“You have to take your hat off for the way they come back again and again,” he said.
“He’s clearly dominant at the moment. It seems to be the best package on the grid at the moment.”
Wolff can at least take comfort from Kimi Antonelli’s still substantial championship advantage. “I’m delighted to have a big margin from the start of the season,” said the Austrian.
Mercedes’ own weekend has gone in the opposite direction, with George Russell crashing out of the wet Sprint and starting Sunday’s race from the back because of engine penalties.
Russell called the accident “a very stupid mistake”.
Ralf Schumacher was harsher.
“That’s why he won’t become world champion, because something like that shouldn’t happen to someone with so much experience,” said the former F1 driver.
Meanwhile Antonelli, still running Mercedes’ troublesome new package, recovered somewhat to qualify P4.
Russell said: “It was positive to see that Kimi was a little more competitive today than we were yesterday, but we didn’t exactly set the laptimes on fire.”
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