Max Verstappen: “My goodness. I’m going to have to order a new spine after that race. I’ll end up being like RoboCop. Crazy. It’s another challenge for everyone”
Max Verstappen He is a racing nut. “You look at everything, many categories.” That’s what I said Dani Juncadella on Mundo Deportivo’s ‘Gran Circo’ podcast that you can see from this Tuesday afternoon on the channel YouTube of M.D. And proof of this is what Max said in the press conference after his victory in the race of the F1 Singapore GP. He warned of the tremendous potholes that the F1 drivers will encounter in the next appointment on the calendar, in austinafter seeing the proof that the World Endurance Championship (WEC) recently played in the Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
“It’s very difficult to say and I don’t want to say right now that I’m going to be in the fight in Austin. But yeah, the last few weekends have been fantastic. I’m just going race by race and when we get to Austin we’ll see how we do there. But it’s a very different circuit again. From what I saw at the WECthe asphalt is incredibly bumpy. My mother! I think after that weekend I’m going to have to order a new spine. Yes, I’ll end up being like RoboCop. Crazy. It’s another challenge for everyone, having to deal with those potholes“Verstappen expressed.
The last few weekends have been fantastic. I’m just going race by race and when we get to Austin we’ll see how we do there. But it is again a very different circuit
“And from there, we’ll see. Then we have to go to Mexico, again at high altitude, where everything will operate at very high temperatures, and we will have to see how the engine performs at that altitude and how the car behaves, because the conditions are very different. There are many things you can do right or wrong in those races, but we’ll see,” said a Max who swept Singapore with pole in both classifications and victories in the sprint race and in the Sunday event.
Then we have to go to Mexico, at high altitude, where everything will operate at very high temperatures, and we will have to see how the engine performs at that altitude and how the car behaves, because the conditions are very different.
The great improvement of his Red Bull and the key to 2027
It is a reality that his car allows him to be very fast again after the great evolution presented in Baku. And Max himself admits it.
“I think the car started to feel much better after Baku. It is much more balanced. And naturally, when you can race a little further ahead without having too many problems with the car, unlike at the beginning of the year when it was sometimes even a little scary to drive, everything becomes much more enjoyable,” Verstappen explained.
The car is much more balanced. At the beginning of the year, it was sometimes even a little scary to drive, everything is much more pleasant
“Also, the way we have managed to turn things around and the enormous progress we have made this year makes everything much more satisfying. And if you add a few victories to that, even better. We are not fighting for the championship, so I think that, from here to the end, we are simply going to try to enjoy, get more podiums and, hopefully, some more victories,” he concluded. Meanwhile, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, from Mercedes, see Verstappen and Red Bull as the favorites and the car to beat in the six races remaining until the end of the F1 World Championship.
Last year, in 2025, Max was already able to take advantage of a car with many deficiencies that had to be made up for with a very specific adjustment to find the small optimal window of the car. In 2025, it seemed like it was more a matter of finding the settings. While in 2026, Red Bull’s progress will be more due to the aerodynamic changes introduced from Baku. Verstappen also talked about it.
“You said it well. They are two completely different cars because of the regulations. We also had completely different problems that we had to solve to find lap time. And, of course, this year there is also the question of the engine: I think for everyone it has sometimes been a little complicated to get the most out of it. But, from the first race until now, we have gained a lot of experience,” he explained.
“Of course, we are still not where we want to be, but I suppose everyone will say the same thing. We have learned a lot and, without a doubt, we have also corrected many of our weaknesses when it comes to the car. Now we simply have to continue improving and learning during this year to be able to apply all that knowledge also next year,” he concluded, warning of 2027. That Red Bull finishes on top in 2026 is the best warning sign for Mercedes, dominating this year for much of this first year again regulations.
