Max Verstappen hopes Jeddah's tarmac will help his Red Bull

At a press conference, Max Verstappen hoped that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix could be a better race than the one he experienced in Bahrain. On a particularly abrasive surface, the Dutchman even occupied last place in the Grand Prix for a few moments after his second stop. A situation almost unprecedented, and one he hopes to see improve as soon as possible.

“I hope it goes better than Bahrain. There are a few more fast corners, a different tarmac, I hope we can be a little more competitive, and show ourselves at least in terms of performance between what we did in Japan and Bahrain. In general, the race has always been one-stop here. I think the softer tires can help to have a two-stop race, but we will have to see in free practice.”

Verstappen confirmed that his team will not yet focus on the 2026 season. The rule change could obviously backfire on teams that focus on the current season until the end. After having mastered the rule change between 2021 and 2022 with excellent results, winning two consecutive world titles, the Dutchman believes his team has the resources to continue addressing the RB21's issues and prepare for next year's RB22.

“We have enough experience to focus on this year and next. We are still trying things on the car, especially on the set-up, I'm not even talking about new parts. We are constantly trying to improve the car and that's what we will try to do again this weekend. We struggled a little bit with the balance, which is not the way I want it. We will try to sort that out, I don't know how much we can sort it out here, but I hope the tarmac will help us a little bit as well.”

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