Max Verstappen: Red Bull didn’t follow my set-up feedback in Canada

May 23, 2026

Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix proved to be a difficult affair for Red Bull. Max Verstappen eventually secured sixth place on the grid, but it was far from straightforward.

Over team radio, the Dutchman first reported that he could not get temperature into the tyres and added that he was also lacking top speed.

“A lot of things from this qualifying session are very difficult to understand. For example, I have no idea where that final lap suddenly came from,” Verstappen reflected when speaking to the Dutch media. “Throughout the session I had very little top speed and simply no grip.”

As for that lack of top speed, Verstappen appeared to derate earlier than most of his rivals, something for which Red Bull has not yet found an explanation.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get any information from the team either, so it was clear that we couldn’t solve it during the session,” Verstappen said.

Max Verstappen said qualifying in Canada was “difficult to understand”

Photo by: Andrej Ivanov / AFP via Getty Images

Red Bull was convinced a different direction would work

However, the issue was not limited to tyre temperatures and top speed. Verstappen clarified that Red Bull had taken a set-up direction that he himself did not support.

“We did something different with my car, that’s what the team wanted. Clearly, that doesn’t work the way it should. But sometimes you also have to let the team do their thing and make clear that it doesn’t work. I said, ‘Go ahead, if you think this is going to work, then do it.’ And clearly, it doesn’t work.”

That does not sound like a typical Verstappen scenario. Normally, the Dutchman has a crucial voice in the set-up direction and the technical team tends to follow his lead, all the more so because Verstappen is not a rookie but a four-time world champion with plenty of experience.

“I’ve pointed it out so many times already, but sometimes you just have to let them feel for themselves that it doesn’t work.”

Asked why things had unfolded differently behind the scenes this weekend, Verstappen continued: “Of course they listen to me very often, but not this time, because they were convinced that it was going to work.”

It appears as though the setup was different across Red Bull’s two cars

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

What makes that particularly remarkable – if the team was so convinced the approach would work – is that a different choice was made on Isack Hadjar’s car. Verstappen explained: “That’s because they wanted to try it with me, that has been the case for years. A driver can also say, ‘Just leave it as it is because it already feels reasonably okay,’ but for me it didn’t feel okay beforehand and it still doesn’t. I’m not easily satisfied with a car. I want to fight for victory, not for seventh place.”

According to Verstappen, it is now clear to everyone within the team that the chosen direction in Montreal was not the right one.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The whole qualifying session was going nowhere. I always stay reasonably calm about it, but hopefully now they know that it doesn’t work.”

When it was suggested that Verstappen had at least learned from this experience and would not allow it to happen again in the upcoming race weekends, he concluded:

“Yeah, I think that’s pretty clear.”