{"id":412851,"date":"2026-01-16T09:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/412851\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T09:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:41:08","slug":"verstappen-prepared-for-unknown-as-red-bull-launch-new-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/412851\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen prepared for ‘unknown’ as Red Bull launch new car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan 16, 2026, 02:51 AM ET<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen admitted the new-look Red Bull will take “time to adjust” to as he prepares for his bid to regain the world title.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman’s run of four successive titles ended in last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi as his late-season surge came up short of denying Lando Norris a maiden crown.<\/p>\n

Amid a welter of new regulations, Red Bull head into the 2026 season with the added challenge of producing their own power units in partnership with Ford.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a launch event in Detroit which revealed the new-look car<\/a>, Verstappen admitted he needed to adapt to the changes.<\/p>\n

“It’s all still a bit unknown,” he said. “It’s a very big change with the engine, the dimension of the car has changed.<\/p>\n

“For the drivers, it will take a bit of time to adjust and that’s why it’s very important during the test days that we are getting our laps in.”<\/p>\n

Verstappen took the title battle to the final race last season after almost erasing a deficit of more than 100 points and is keen to build on that momentum.<\/p>\n

“It’s always better to have an ending like that,” he said. “The motivation is very high, everyone is very excited to start this new chapter.”<\/p>\n

Oracle Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team photo at the joint launch event in Detroit.\u00a0Joe Gall \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

He is joined in the Red Bull driving line-up by Isack Hadjar who enjoyed an impressive rookie season with junior team Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Frenchman clinched a maiden podium at the Dutch Grand Prix in August and has high ambitions for the coming season.<\/p>\n

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“A maiden race win would be good – at least,” he said at the launch event.<\/p>\n

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies admitted the team faces plenty of obstacles as they launched their new power unit.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be the biggest change of regulations in Formula 1 history, but that was not enough,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We decided to do our own power unit with our strategic partner Ford. It’s a crazy challenge. It’s going to be a year full of challenges.<\/p>\n

“We are not naive. We know it is going to come with a certain amount of struggle. We know it is going to come with difficulties.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 16, 2026, 02:51 AM ET Max Verstappen admitted the new-look Red Bull will take “time to adjust”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-412851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}