Verstappen Urges Red Bull to Solve Persistent Start Issues

Max Verstappen may have snagged pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, but he's not entirely at ease. The Red Bull ace is urging his team to dig into why their race starts leave much to be desired. Despite outpacing Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at Marina Bay and joining the elite club of drivers with 50 pole positions, Verstappen is still wary of his car's sluggish starts.

Earlier, in the Sprint race, Verstappen's getaway was less than stellar, allowing George Russell to swoop past him at the first corner. Although Russell's race ended abruptly with a crash, leaving Verstappen to cruise ahead, the Dutchman didn't hesitate to highlight race starts as an Achilles' heel for Red Bull this season.

"Like always, it just doesn’t go off the line," Verstappen lamented in the post-Sprint press conference. "We need to understand what we’re doing wrong there."

His teammate, Isack Hadjar, didn't fare much better, suffering his first Q1 exit of the season due to recurring power unit issues, leaving Red Bull with more than a few puzzles to solve ahead of the main event.

With only one practice session before the Sprint and a notoriously tricky Singapore circuit where overtaking is a Herculean task, Verstappen is keen to iron out these issues. "No-one really knows about the long runs because we didn’t get to do any," he noted, "but for me, the most important part is more at the start."

As Verstappen lines up alongside Leclerc on the front row, with Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli on the second, Red Bull has some work to do. The team must crack the code of their early-race woes if Verstappen is to convert his pole position into a victory.