Verstappen admits it’s a ‘big surprise to be second in the standings’ after Red Bull’s ‘difficulties’

Max Verstappen has revealed that it’s “a big surprise” to be as high up as second in the drivers’ standings after Red Bull suffered a challenging start to the 2026 season, with the Dutchman praising the team for never giving up.

It took five rounds before the four-time World Champion finished on the podium, and 16 events until he returned to winning ways, but Verstappen’s consistency since the summer break has seen him improve to P2 with a slim advantage over Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull fully leaned into the development battle and introduced effective upgrades in order to facilitate their progress, which Verstappen admitted he wouldn’t have been able to foresee earlier in the year.

“It's a big surprise to be second, to be honest, in the championship, but we take it,” the Dutchman said ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. “I think we had a lot of difficulties as a team in the beginning. You know, the car was not where we wanted it to be.

“Probably also, we still had to learn quite a bit from the power unit, and I think we really learned a lot throughout the season. The car has naturally been a lot more competitive, of course, lately.

“From my side, it’s just you never really give up, or you just never really settle for P6 or P7. Even when I was in that position or fighting the midfield, I was still trying to do the best that I could get out of the situation – sometimes that is a P6, when the car is not able to perform better.

“Once the car is in a better window, then you can fight further up front and eventually win races. Of course when you win, you take points out of everyone else, so that's been the scene for the last races.

“I’m happy with that, but it also shows that the team never gave up and they were really pushing to find these improvements and understand the difficulties. I'm just happy that within a season, we had such a big turnaround.”

Although Red Bull have made significant gains over the second half of the season, Verstappen has still faced issues with his radio communication and downshifts over recent race weekends.

Asked how he has worked with the team to adapt, he explained: “The radio was, I think, a lot better in Mexico. We were also trying some things and it's just a few tiny settings probably to still get right. But actually the team was hearing me very well – maybe everyone else [was] not, but that's actually fantastic to be honest, so we should actually try and keep it that way.

“With shifts or whatever that you hear me complain about, it’s just because I'm never satisfied because I think certain things can be better and I always try to fine tune or find improvements.

“If you hear it as complaining, it's more for me to make sure that the team is always looking into details to try and find more lap time because I know there is more lap time in it."