Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Singapore, 2025

Max Verstappen came away from the opening day of practice for the Singapore Grand Prix in a positive frame of mind.

The Red Bull driver, who has won the last two grands prix, said they made the same smooth start to the weekend they had at those two rounds.

“FP1 started quite nicely, we were just getting up to speed with things, but the car was not bad,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “A bit like the last two weekends where there were no major problems.

“Then in FP2 a few things that we tried, some were good, so we just need to try and optimise that a bit more. But overall, in general I’m quite satisfied, but definitely we need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.”

While most teams have brought fewer upgrades to their cars as the season has progressed, Red Bull have introduced new parts for the eighth weekend in a row in Singapore. Verstappen trialled a new, steeper front wing in practice, and Red Bull also introduced a revision to their engine cover.

He said the team need to work on “tiny details” to refine the car’s performance. “Front grip, rear grip, keeping the tyres alive throughout the lap. Around here the tyres overheat a lot.

“So all those things just need to be a little bit better and then hopefully that will be a bit more in the window and then you can push also a bit harder.”

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Verstappen, who has never won in Singapore, said it was “definitely very positive” that Red Bull had made such a promising start at a track which previously hasn’t suited their car.

“There’s still a few things that we want to do better, but it’s not like we need to throw around the set-up completely,” he said. “So that’s a good thing.

“We’ll see tomorrow. Is it going to be good enough to fight up front? I don’t know. I always find FP2 is a bit difficult to say with people running [different] engine modes top speed-wise. I guess we’ll see in qualifying.”

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