The start of the F1 2025 season hasn’t been easy for the Red Bull Racing crew, with reigning champion Max Verstappen struggling for pace.

But is there hope on the horizon? The Dutch driver certainly seems to think so — and we could see improvement as early as the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Japanese GP “suits” Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Red Bull Racing hasn’t had an easy start to 2025. Yes, Max Verstappen is sitting in second overall in the championship standings, but Liam Lawson performed so poorly in the first two events that Red Bull has already opted for a driver swap.

According to Verstappen after China, the performance gap between the RB21 and its competitors from McLaren is “bigger” than anticipated.

Though he did admit the car is “better than last year,” the RB21 still isn’t where he would like it to be. That’s surely going to kick off a season-long battle to continue improving the machinery — at least until the team opts to focus fully on the upcoming 2026 car.

But don’t worry, Red Bull fans: Max Verstappen still has hope.

More Red Bull analysis:

👉 Red Bull’s seven shortest driver stints – and why they ended

👉 Is Liam Lawson a victim of F1’s restrictive testing regulations?

Speaking to Spanish television after the Chinese Grand Prix, Verstappen offered a lengthy verdict on his race pace as well as the further improvements the RB21 will need.

“The first stint went as we had planned,” he said.

“Just run our own pace and not try to hang on to others to avoid degrading the tyres.

“They pulled away in that first stint and then on the hard tyre I tried to keep the pace from the beginning, but I was lacking.

“For some reason in the second half of the stint the tyres stabilized and I could push more and increase the pace. It’s something we’ll have to analyse, of course it’s positive, because in the end the pace was more promising, but we’re still not where we want to be.”

He acknowledged that there are “many lessons to consider” ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, with an eye to improving the “overall performance of the car” based on the data Red Bull gathered in Japan.

“Hopefully in Japan we can extract more from the car,” Verstappen said.

“Suzuka suits me but it also has to suit the car.

“We’ll have to analyse everything from this weekend and hopefully we can find a bit more performance.”

Read next: Explained: Why is Red Bull’s second seat so cursed?