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Max Verstappen has admitted he was "too harsh" on Red Bull earlier in the season when the team were lagging far behind the front of the Formula 1 grid.
The opening months of the campaign were extremely tough, with the team spending a long time searching for a fix to the balance issues plaguing the RB22. Progress finally came after a major upgrade package was introduced in Baku, after which results swiftly improved.
The turnaround secured Verstappen his first pole position and first victory of the year in Malaysia. The Dutchman carried that momentum into Singapore, where he claimed both the sprint and the Grand Prix from pole. Verstappen sees a clear distinction between their current resurgence and last season's turnaround, when the team's form picked up after the Monza race weekend.
"It's a completely different story. Last season was all down to the setup. For a long time, we thought the car couldn't run in a certain configuration, and then it turned out it could. That was a valuable lesson. This year was different — at the start, we could have tried any setup and it wouldn't have fixed the balance. The latest upgrades helped massively. I find my rhythm much more easily now and can push right to the limit. At times I was harsh, but above all, clear and direct. The team knows it's nothing personal. I'm a perfectionist and always want things done better, especially when I know it's entirely achievable," the driver told Dutch publication De Telegraaf.
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