Max Verstappen has quipped that most people would “poop [their] pants” with the task of driving the Red Bull RB21 at Suzuka, admitting the team still have “clear issues” to sort.

Verstappen, the reigning four-time World Champion, claimed his first pole position of the F1 2025 season at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Japanese GP: Max Verstappen sets pole position at Suzuka

The Red Bull driver’s fastest lap in Q3 saw him claim pole by 0.012 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, the current World Championship leader.

Verstappen’s first pole of the season comes after a challenging start to F1 2025, having finished a distant fourth at the last race in China.

Red Bull held a crunch meeting at their Milton Keynes factory in the aftermath of the Chinese GP last month in an attempt to get to the bottom of the RB21’s issues, with adviser Helmut Marko revealing that Verstappen addressed his concerns with engineers.

Go deeper: Understanding Red Bull driver Max Verstappen

👉 Jos Verstappen: The F1 racer turned ruthless mentor behind Max Verstappen’s supreme F1 talent

👉 Revealed: The three rules introduced by the FIA because of Max Verstappen

Appearing in the post-qualifying press conference in the Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen admitted that the car was still tricky to drive in qualifying.

Asked to describe the sensation of driving a “very well” handling F1 car at Suzuka, he said: “The sensation? I’m happy that I’m first.

“Maybe, if you want to drive the car, you can give it a go. I think you’re going to poop your pants!

“Is that allowed to say in a press conference [since the FIA’s clampdown on foul language]?

“It’s not easy, but we clearly found a driveable balance and tried to do the best we could.

“But around here, you need to be very committed, especially in sector 1.

“A lot of happiness when I crossed the line. The whole qualifying we kept on just trying to improve the situation a bit.

“The final lap, honestly, was very good. I had a lot of fun out there, being being fully committed everywhere, some places, not sure if I was actually going to keep it or not.

“But it was really nice and also great for for the team as well.”

Verstappen’s 41st career pole comes after he admitting to be struggling “to put the lap down” after Friday practice at Suzuka.

Asked to explain how the car had changed in the space of 24 hours, he said: “Naturally, it was a bit better.

“I think that issue was a lot better today, but at the same time I think the through-corner balance is still what we need to work on.

“But I think on low fuel, over one lap some bits you can mask a little bit but it’s still not [perfect]. I don’t go into the lap fully confident and comfortable.

“So the last lap I was like: ‘Well, I’m just going to not try and feel uncomfortable, just send it in and see what we get.’

“But it’s very rare, of course, that a lap like that then can stick, but this time it worked well.

“But we keep working. We know that we have some issues that we want to solve, but it’s clearly not easy to solve them at the moment.

“Just trying a lot of different things to try and make it more balanced, which is a bit of a difficulty for us at the moment.

“And even in qualifying, that is still the same. I could be more committed.

“I’m on pole but I’m still not happy with the balance of the car, but we are working on it and for us this is a great little surprise.”

Verstappen’s new team-mate Yuki Tsunoda showed promising pace in the early stages of the weekend before qualifying a distant 15th, later pointing to poor tyre preparation ahead of his final lap.

Verstappen distanced himself from Tsunoda’s complaints, reiterating his belief that mid-corner balance is Red Bull’s main issue with the RB21 currently.

And he insisted that his first pole position of the season does not mean that “everything is perfect” with Red Bull still battling “clear issues” with the car.

He said: “Honestly, I don’t think it has [anything] to do with the tyres for me at least.

“It’s just the through-corner balance that is very difficult to manage, but we clearly got it in a window where at least it was driveable to push and luckily then it was enough for first.

“But it’s still not [perfect]. This is not suddenly now [resolved].

“I don’t say: ‘Oh, I’m first now, everything is perfect.’

“We still have clear issues that we need to solve. That’s what we are continuing to work on.

“This is a very tough track for the car in general. It’s really high speed, so any little balance limitation that you have can sometimes be multiplied in some places around the lap.

“So probably some tracks might work out a bit better for us and maybe some will be a bit worse.

“But it was clear that up until now, this whole weekend we have been really experimenting a lot to try and find that driveable balance and at least that allowed me to push a bit more.”

More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull

👉 Max Verstappen news

👉 Red Bull news

Verstappen’s pole position has already been described as one of the best of his F1 career having put himself ahead of the dominant McLarens on the grid.

Asked where he took the biggest risks on his final lap, Verstappen pointed to the first sector and Spoon Curve.

He said: I think exit [Turn 1] 1 into 2; 6, 7, 8; and then Spoon.

“Those places I was like: ‘Well, I hope it’s going to stick.’ But it did.

“And of course, when I crossed the line, I could see my name pop up, but I knew also that Oscar was still behind me, but I was already just very happy with what I did there, because I didn’t even expect to be even close to that.

“That was a nice moment.”

Asked if he considers it his best pole position, he added: “It’s difficult. I’ve had some really nice ones also in other places.

“But I think if you look at how our season started, even during this weekend, I think it’s very unexpected, I would say.

“And I think that makes it probably a very special one.”

Read next: Where Verstappen ‘made the difference’ as Japan GP pole draws Norris reaction