Red Bull’s Max Verstappen discussed his disappointment after qualifying P7 for the F1 2026 Dutch GP. The hometown hero has not been able to get into the top 5 throughout the weekend.
Verstappen had been P11 in FP1 and started, and remained, P6 in an uneventful Sprint Race. During the main Qualifying, the four time world champion was not able to improve much. He finished P12 in Q1, P3 in Q2, and finally fell back to P7 in Q3.
Just as the summer break came to an end, the Dutchman announced he had signed a contract extension with Red Bull up to 2030. Still, Verstappen expects improvements as the team once again struggles to match the leading constructors.
Verstappen on recurring balance issues at the F1 2026 Dutch GP
After a disappointing Sprint and Qualifying, Max Verstappen was asked whether anything had changed between sessions. “It’s just the same. It’s the same balance issues that we had over the weekend,” he answered.
“So, with the big changes that we made, unfortunately we didn’t really do anything to the car.”
When asked how frustrating the situation was for him, the Red Bull driver said honestly: “It’s not so frustrating. We’ve been in that basically the whole year. It’s not weird or something that doesn’t work out.”
On whether its a temporary issue or a long term thing, Verstappen leaned more into short term. Still, he added: “I mean, I hope so, but I think also some changes need to be made for the future [2027 and beyond].”
Verstappen on Lawson’s performance back at Red Bull
Just before the start of the weekend, Red Bull also announced that Isack Hadjar had injured his wrist and would miss the F1 2026 Dutch GP. As a result, Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson was temporarily promoted to the main team. While Yuki Tsunoda stepped back into the seat in Red Bull’s sister team.
On how it felt to work with Lawson again, Verstappen said: “Good, yeah. Good. Nice.”
The two had been teammates for a short run in 2025. Liam Lawson had been promoted to Red Bull for the season in place of Sergio Perez. However, in a classic move from the Austrian team, Lawson was demoted back to Racing Bulls after just two races.
Additionally, Verstappen was asked if he believed the New Zealander had grown as a driver. He quickly stated: “I don’t think it’s about growing. I mean, I’m happy for him that he had a good run also at the Racing Bulls and he’s done a very solid weekend so far.”
“Margins are always super small,” says Verstappen on 2026 F1 cars
After Qualifying, Verstappen was asked about the influence of a driver with the new cars given the smaller gaps between Red Bull teammates.
The four-time World Champion agreed and said the 2026 F1 cars reduced the differences. “Especially in qualifying, I think. I mean, it’s a lot easier nowadays with these cars to find the limit, because you’re also in quite a few places where you’re a bit down on battery. Everything becomes a bit easier to line up.”
“So, I think that demonstrated it quite well this weekend compared to the previous cars.”
While Verstappen qualified P7 with a lap time of 1:11.618, Lawson finished P8 just about over a tenth behind. Similarly, in Q2 Lindblad set a time of 1:12.525 in P10, while Tsunoda was P12 with 1:12.627 at Racing Bulls.
“For me, that’s not a surprise,” said Verstappen.“I think you see it already the whole season. Everyone is always within one tenth, two tenths. If you have a very bad qualifying, three tenths.
“So, the margins are always super small,” he concluded.
