Singapore – Max Verstappen could hardly hide his frustration during the Singapore Grand Prix, where he took a second place on Sunday afternoon that tasted like more. The four -time world champion of Red Bull Racing left a striking message about the team radio, addressed to his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. “Everything was against me in this race,” sounded the voice of Verstappen, full of disbelief and irritation, struggling with a return problem in his RB21. The incident, which took place in the early phase of the race on the challenging Marina Bay Street Circuit, was not a one -off miss. It was a common mistake that Verstappen has chased several times this season, and Red Bull chose to remain silent about a possible technical cause that the chaos heralds.
The race started promising for Verstappen. From the second starting position, after a qualification in which he narrowly let George Russell go for, the Dutchman defended his place with the precision that has been champion crowned for years. The start was chaotic: the track, which had just got dry after a wet qualifying session, caused treacherous grip. Verstappen consciously opted for the ‘dirty’ side of the grid to try out an alternative strategy, but that did not work out ideal. “Normally you pass one turn one and just stand without crazy things,” he said later in an interview with Sky Sports. But soon the frustration escalated.
Around the tenth round, while Verstappen tried to reduce the gap with leader Russell, things went wrong when switching back for a slow chicane. The RB21, Red Bulls newest car who already criticized his transmission this season, did not respond as expected. The car faltered, the engine screamed, and Verstappen almost missed the Apex off the bend. The bomb burst over the radio: “What is this damn one? I try to switch back, but he doesn’t grab!” Lambiase tried to calm down, but the damage was already done. Verstappen lost valuable seconds, and Lando Norris van McLaren immediately dived into his slipstream, sitting on the heels by teammate Oscar Piastri.
This switching problem is not a new phenomenon for Verstappen in 2025. Earlier this season, during the races in Imola and Montreal, he struggled with similar issues. In Imola, a failed Downshift almost cost him a podium place, and in Canada it led to a grid penalty after an investigation of the stewards. Experts point to a possible mismatch between the gearbox and aerodynamic setup of the RB21, which appears to be extra sensitive on high-downforce circuits such as Singapore. “I have it often enough, but this was really bad,” Verstappen admitted afterwards. “The downshifts and upshifts were unpredictable. It felt like the car had its own will.” The 28-year-old driver, who is already running 63 points this year on Piastri in the championship, emphasized that he absolutely had to win Singapore to have a serious chance of a fifth title. With six races to go, every mistake feels like a knife in the back.
Red Bull, led by Team Principal Christian Horner, remained remarkably silent about the technical side of the case. In the press conference after the race, no report was made of a specific defect, and Horner simply described the performance as “the maximum result under the circumstances.” However, there is rumors behind the scenes. Technical director Pierre Waché would have been complaining about inconsistent transmission performance for weeks, but budget restrictions and the focus on the 2026 rules make a fast fix difficult. “We analyze everything, but it’s not a disaster,” said Horner Cryptic. Critics, including former driver Mark Webber, suggest that Red Bull leans too much on Verstappen’s talent to mask structural weaknesses. “Max is a wizard behind the wheel, but even he can’t do miracles when the car fails,” Tweet Webber.
The race itself was a thriller under the iconic lights of Marina Bay. George Russell, in a surprisingly strong Mercedes, took his second victory of the season and narrowly kept Verstappen behind him. The Dutchman fiercely defended Norris, who put everything on everything in the final phases. A small incident in bend three, where Norris hit the Red Bull and got out of balance with Piastri, caused extra tension, but Verstappen held out. “It was hard to be consistent,” he said. “The balance of the car was not as I expected, and I had to constantly manage. Nothing went smoothly today.” Despite the frustration, Verstappen showed his resilience: he scored valuable points and kept the pressure on McLaren, which almost has the constructors title with Piastri.
For Verstappen, who was driving his 200th race for Red Bull this weekend, Singapore was a bitter pill. The job, where he has never won, remains a personal demon. His debut in 2014 ended with a dropout due to a link problem, and the following years brought bad luck and defeats. “Singapore just hates me,” he joked in the media. But more serious: the race underlined the gap between Red Bull and the dominance of McLaren. Piastri now leads comfortably, and Norris climbs in the rankings. Verstappen, who did not finish lower than second in the last four races, must turn his frustration into fire for the upcoming Grands Prix in Austin and Mexico.
Yet there is hope. Red Bull has made progress on circuits with high downforce, and second place in Singapore was better than expected. “We are closer than last year,” Horner acknowledged. Verstappen himself remains combative: “I don’t give up. This season is not over yet.” His team radio outburst, a rare moment of open anger, recalls that even champions are human. While the lights of Singapore are deaf, Verstappen is already driving ahead to the next battle – with a lesson learned and a car that hopefully will listen next time.
