Max Verstappen calls it a “big surprise” to be second in the Drivers’ Championship after Red Bull’s 2026 turnaround

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

Max Verstappen admitted it was unexpected to be as high as second in the 2026 Drivers’ Championship standings, following a dramatic change in fortunes for Red Bull after a challenging early season. Speaking ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the four-time World Champion said reaching P2 was a “big surprise,” while adding that he and the team were determined to keep pushing even when the car was not delivering the performance they wanted.

Verstappen pointed to how long it took Red Bull to get fully back on the podium picture in the early stages of the year. According to his account, it took five rounds before he finished on the podium, and 16 events before he returned to winning races, after which his results improved as the season progressed.

He described Red Bull’s mid-season shift as both technical and mental, emphasizing that the team leaned hard into development work after falling behind early. Verstappen said the team “fully leaned into the development battle,” introducing effective upgrades that made the car “a lot more competitive” in the later part of the year—an improvement he said he would not have been able to foresee earlier in 2026.

From Verstappen’s perspective, learning was also central to the turnaround, particularly around the car’s power unit. He said he and the team “had to learn quite a bit from the power unit,” adding that they “really learned a lot throughout the season,” which he believes helped create a more competitive package over time.

The driver also tied his championship rise to a stubborn approach in periods when results were not expected to be strong. Verstappen said he never felt he could “settle for P6 or P7,” explaining that even when he was fighting in the midfield he kept trying to extract the best possible performance. He said that when the car could only deliver a limited ceiling, those efforts might translate into results such as P6, but they remained focused on maximizing every lap.

Once the car moved into a better performance window, Verstappen said the results followed naturally. He argued that as Red Bull regained competitiveness, the team could “fight further up front and eventually win races,” and that victories directly damage rivals’ championship ambitions by taking points from other contenders.

Verstappen’s comments also reflected how Red Bull’s development efforts were sustained rather than abandoned when early problems emerged. He said the turnaround within a single season showed “the team never gave up,” and he emphasized that the team kept working to understand difficulties and find improvements, ultimately translating that effort into his rise to P2.

Despite the progress, Verstappen said he has still faced operational issues in recent weekends, including radio communication and downshifts. When asked how he and the team have adapted, he said the radio was “a lot better in Mexico,” and that the team was testing “some things” and still needed to fine-tune “a few tiny settings.” He added that the team could hear him clearly, expressing satisfaction with communication quality.

On race-weekend complaints linked to shifting, Verstappen framed them less as dissatisfaction with the process and more as a drive for incremental performance gains. He said that if his feedback sounds like complaining, it is because he is never fully satisfied and believes there is additional lap time available. He stated that hearing concerns the way the team does is part of ensuring Red Bull keeps “looking into details” to find more performance from the car in the fight ahead in the championship.