Max Verstappen has urged Red Bull to “be more competitive” after an underwhelming start to the 2026 F1 season.
Having lacked pace throughout the opening three rounds of this season in which he only gained 12 points and lies ninth in the standings, Verstappen battled to eighth in the Japanese Grand Prix as he couldn’t pass Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in a fierce battle for seventh after he started 11th following his Q2 elimination.
The 28-year old post-race explained that he simply lacked battery to overtake Gasly who kept his cool under pressure from Verstappen.
“For this race I tried everything I could to get back into the points and work myself forward. I had a better start, maximised my race and recovered positions. I tried to pass the Alpine, but Pierre did a good job with no mistakes and made it unfortunately too difficult.
“When trying to overtake, there was no battery on the main straight; I was waiting to see if he might make a small mistake, but he did everything well and there was no way to pass by.”
F1 now takes a five-week break after the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix were called off due to the Middle-East conflict, with Verstappen pleased to go into the break off the back of four points but has urged Red Bull to ensure that they can fight for top-six finishes in Miami on 3 May.
“We ultimately scored good points considering the issues that we had this weekend, but it was not really where we want to fight. Now of course we have a month to analyse everything so we can be more competitive and sort more things with the car.
“It will be important to work to find a bit more rhythm and understand more about the car, the engine and deployment. Everyone is working flat out and doing the best they can and there is a lot that we can do over the next few weeks.”
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