Max Verstappen is convinced there is \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d for Red Bull after securing a front row start at the Miami Grand Prix with a strong qualifying performance.<\/p>\n
After struggling for performance and reliability at the opening three races of 2026, Verstappen lies ninth in the drivers\u2019 standings ahead of Sunday\u2019s race, 59 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n
Wider frustrations with Formula 1\u2019s new regulations left the four-time champion questioning his future in the series beyond following the last round in Japan, but he appeared more upbeat after securing second on the grid behind Antonelli in Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom here, there\u2019s light at the end of the tunnel, and we can just push on and try to close the gap further,\u201d Verstappen said after qualifying.<\/p>\n
The improvement comes after a five-week break in racing due to the cancellation of races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, allowing Red Bull to arrive in Miami with a raft of changes to its car.<\/p>\n
The progress was evident in Miami\u2019s sprint race, in which Verstappen finished fifth, and the four-time champion said he found another step in performance in Saturday\u2019s qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many things were not working up until this weekend, so for us bringing the car back together, also for me in the car itself, a few things have changed and it made it a lot more comfortable to drive,\u201d Verstappen said of the changes. \u201cI feel a lot more confidence and I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m a passenger anymore in the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was already quite evident yesterday [in sprint qualifying] and then I think today the sprint was not too bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could finally follow the cars ahead of me instead of them just pulling away and not see them again. And then some tiny changes for qualifying and seemed like that helped again a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, to be on the front row coming from over a second behind in the previous race is really incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to pinpoint which changes to the car had made the biggest difference, Verstappen said: \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s everything, because before nothing really worked. I felt like a total passenger in the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could understeer, it could snap on me, it could feel different from one session to the other one without even touching parts. So we understood a lot of stuff, I think.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still not where we want to be in terms of understanding everything, but most of it. And yeah, that has showed that here the car just feels a lot more together. Yeah, I can finally drive how I want to drive, also with just my steering inputs, and that helps a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I think also with the energy management, I think everyone is learning every single weekend, so are we. Of course, we are completely new manufacturers, so I think our learning curve is probably a little bit more steep. But yeah, they\u2019re doing a really good job, and it\u2019s just getting, let\u2019s say, better and better every time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen is convinced there is \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d for Red Bull after securing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,88754,82],"class_list":["post-644066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen-sports-auto-racing-player-player-statscom-843471","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644066","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=644066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}