There were still two races on the current Formula 1 calendar missing from Max Verstappen's list of victories: the Madring and the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Given that F1 only visited the street circuit in Madrid for the first time this year, that is understandable, but Singapore has proved to be Red Bull's Achilles' heel for years.
Until this season. In 2026, Verstappen was dominant in Singapore, claiming two pole positions and two victories over the sprint weekend. On Sunday, the main focus was on the start – a major headache for Red Bull this year – although Verstappen managed to hold his position this time.
“The start was critical, and it was just good enough. Again, something was not particularly right at the start, so I need to understand what went wrong there”, Verstappen revealed.
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F1 Singapore GP: Verstappen takes comfortable victory from Leclerc and Antonelli“Before releasing the clutch, it didn't feel good. Then we had a few laps with some deployment issues, so that's where Charles almost got me into Turn 7. Once we had cleared the deployment problems, it was fine.”
According to Verstappen, those starting problems were different from what he had experienced in recent weeks. On those occasions, things had gone wrong when he released the clutch, but this time the problem had already emerged at an earlier stage.
“I need to understand what went on with the engine before even dropping the clutch, because I think that did hurt my start. It was again not fantastic, you can say that.”
Afterwards, Verstappen braked late on the outside line and also managed to survive the deployment issues. That meant the threat from his rivals had passed, although the Dutchman still had to deal with another inconvenience for the remainder of the race: his radio was not working properly.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
The four-time world champion could still hear the team, but his responses were unintelligible.
“Maybe GP was happy that it was not working!” Verstappen laughed in the post-race press conference.
“I couldn't really say anything. He did try at one point to ask me a few things in code, and I think he understood well what I meant or what I didn’t want! But it's never nice. I've been having difficulties with my radio already the whole season, and this weekend has been particularly bad.”
It meant Lambiase had to get creative to obtain Verstappen's input. In the closing stages of the race, he asked the Dutchman to remain silent if he wanted to make another pitstop in the event of a safety car, and to press the radio button if he preferred to maintain track position.
Team principal Laurent Mekies clarified that these radio problems were entirely on Red Bull's side and were not related to any wider technical issues in Singapore.
“I don’t think it’s the circumstances, no, I think it’s on our side”, Mekies said on Sunday night.
“It was not the same issue as in FP1, but it was a little bit painful. These cars are complicated and there is a huge amount of dialogue that needs to happen between the drivers and engineers. But as you have seen, GP found his ways to communicate with Max and vice versa when it mattered.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“Of course, it's something that we take seriously like everything else. And I'm sure we will come back with a strong solution for it, because it could cost you decisive time in crucial moments.”
Hart to replace Lambiase as Verstappen's race engineer in Austin
As a reward for all his efforts, Red Bull sent Lambiase onto the podium alongside Verstappen, which also came as a surprise to the four-time world champion.
“Yeah, I didn't expect that. I remember he said to me last year in Vegas, "This might be the last time I'm on the podium." I said, "Don't be silly, we're going to win much more." But I almost jinxed myself there, I guess!” Verstappen laughed.
“It was just super nice that they sent him up. We all know that he is leaving, but I think it was very special to share the podium on a track that we had not won together. So yeah, very nice to see him up there.”
At the same time, Red Bull is planning the transition to Verstappen's future race engineer, Tom Hart. He was initially set to join Williams as Alexander Albon's race engineer, but when Verstappen made his preference for Lambiase's successor known internally, Red Bull did everything it could to reverse that move and retain Hart – successfully.
There is no official date yet for when Hart will permanently take over from Lambiase, although Red Bull is in discussions with McLaren about Lambiase's start date and his gardening leave. The timing of the transition partly depends on those arrangements, with 2027 theoretically emerging as a logical outcome.
Before that happens, Hart and Verstappen will already have several race weekends to become more familiar with working together. Red Bull has confirmed to Autosport that Hart will serve as Verstappen's race engineer in Austin, Brazil and Las Vegas, replacing Lambiase in that role.
The team added that Lambiase will still be present at the circuit during those weekends, carrying out his duties as Head of Racing.