Red Bull’s Max Verstappen believes second place at the 2025 F1 Singapore GP was the “maximum” he could’ve achieved after failing to take advantage of a softer tyre to overtake George Russell at the start.
The four-time world champion started on softs compared to Russell’s mediums, hoping to take the lead at the first corner, but had a poor start on the dirty side of the grid and was even under pressure from Piastri’s McLaren at one stage, but managed to fend it off.
Why the race was “more difficult” than he hoped
Although the start is what cost him the chance of victory, the Dutchman also pointed out several other issues he had during the race, including faltering gearbox and an overly agressive car balance which meant his race was “more difficult” than he hoped:
“I think the whole race was quite difficult — more difficult than I hoped — for a lot of different reasons, let’s say it like that. So a few things we need to understand, why these things went wrong today. But even then, around here, even if you have more pace, you can’t pass without anything crazy happening. So I think, for us, second was the maximum result.”
Why he believes he would have won with a better start
Verstappen was the only of the front-runners to start on the soft compound tyre, following a rain shower that had hit the circuit just over an hour before lights out.
Despite the track drying pretty quickly due to heat around the Singapore streets, Verstappen lamented that the left side of the F1 grid was still a bit damp, and that compromised his start even more compared to the 2024 Singapore GP, which he also started from second:
“Yeah, I think so,” he said when asked if he could’ve won had he taken the lead at the start. “It’s just super hard to pass around here, but I didn’t take the lead at Turn 1.
“So, yeah, we knew that the inside just was a lot worse for start performance,” he explained. “For whatever reason, it took a step back even compared to last year, so it’s a bit of a shame, of course. I knew already yesterday that it would be very tough to even keep the position on the same tyres.
“Then, of course, with the rain as well, we opted to go for the Soft, just hoping that first of all we could keep our position and maybe have a shot at fighting for P1 into Turn 1. But once I didn’t achieve that, it was a proper management race, trying to keep those Soft tyres alive long enough to bring it to an acceptable lap to stop.
“I knew that even on a Hard tyre, it was still a long way to go. I think my tyres were six, seven laps older than George’s and Lando’s more or less. So, yeah, it was not easy out there. “
How gearbox issues plagued his RB21 “the whole race”
The reigning world champion explained how he had issues with his gearbox throughout the whole grand prix, and struggled with the balance at different points – he even called it “undriveable” at one stage over the radio.
But Verstappen believes that didn’t change the end result, so difficult it was to overtake or even stay close to the car ahead in the Singapore GP due to the dirty air, accepting that he would finish second regardless of a better balance in his Red Bull F1:
“Plus the whole race, I was struggling a lot with the shifting — downshifting and upshifting — so that was not helping. And the balance probably was not where I wanted it to be. So I think second was just the maximum that we could do today.
“But at the same time, even if the balance would have been miles better, second was still the best we could have done if we stayed P2 into Turn 1. That’s just how it goes around here. When nothing crazy happens with a Safety Car or an opportunity, then that is just your position.”
How he is looking forward to a “proper battle” with Mercedes for P2 in the constructors’ championship
With George Russell winning and Kimi Antonelli finishing fifth, Mercedes strenghtened its grip in second place at the constructors’ championship.
On Red Bull’s side, after a strong showing in Baku, Yuki Tsunoda went missing again this weekend and scored no points, leaving Verstappen in a one-man team to take on Ferrari and Mercedes, which is 35 points clear after the F1 Singapore GP.
“Yeah, the 35 [points, gap to Mercedes] is quite a lot already,” Verstappen said. “Ideally, I would have won today. But, yeah, we will try for sure. It’s going to be a proper battle. It’s not so easy when Mercedes wins today and you’re P2, and I think the other Mercedes also scored points — I don’t know what position. So it’s tough, but we’re going to give it a good go.”
