It is less than a month since Max Verstappen qualified sixth at Monza and afterwards spoke about a Red Bull car "made of paper". Admittedly, that comment specifically concerned the "car degradation" issue – components that sometimes deteriorate over the course of a race – and according to Verstappen and team principal Laurent Mekies, that issue can no longer be fully resolved in 2026.
But in terms of pure pace, significant steps have been made since those frustrations at Monza. Verstappen has finished on the podium at every race weekend since his crash at Zandvoort, and in Malaysia he has now secured his first pole of the year.
