Autosport has reported:

Red Bull’s recovery during the 2026 Formula 1 season and the expected opening of a new wind tunnel in 2027 are giving Max Verstappen reasons for optimism about the team’s prospects next year. The Dutch driver said the upgrades brought in this season have worked, while the new facility could help Red Bull develop its car during the second year of the current regulations.

Red Bull has won two of the past three Grands Prix and was only 0.196 seconds behind in Baku, bringing Verstappen and the team back to the front of the field. The resurgence came too late to make a meaningful difference in this season’s title fight, but Verstappen is within reach of a top-three finish in the drivers’ championship.

After the Singapore race weekend, Verstappen was eight points behind Lewis Hamilton and 17 points behind Russell. That leaves second place in the standings a realistic possibility. Asked whether he had begun thinking about the FIA’s annual prize-giving gala on Dec. 12 in Shanghai, Verstappen smiled.

“Is that the prize-giving ceremony? Well, I was really ill last year! But we'll see what happens.”

A runner-up or third-place finish would not change his view of the season’s outcome, Verstappen told Dutch media in the Singapore paddock. Despite Red Bull’s difficult start and subsequent progress, he said the title remains the only result that matters to him.

“No, because ultimately you're not winning. You're not becoming world champion, and that's the only thing that matters to me.”

He said Red Bull’s improvement from the early rounds was the most encouraging part of the season. In China and Japan, the team was still fighting Haas and Alpine, but it has since resolved problems with parts of the car and made progress through upgrades. Verstappen said that record gives the team a positive basis heading into next year, particularly while other teams still have doubts about aspects of their new upgrades.

“The most important thing is to look at where we were at the beginning of the season and where we are now”, Verstappen said. “All the upgrades that have been introduced on the car since then, and also the problems we had with certain parts of our car, we've managed to solve all of that. That's very important heading into next year.

“When you see that some teams still have doubts about certain aspects of their new upgrades, everything is working for us, and that's a real positive.”

Verstappen has previously said that some limitations of Red Bull’s 2026 car cannot be removed, so more fundamental changes will be needed for the next season’s design. Asked whether the development direction was already completely clear and whether that made him confident, he said it was difficult to know how ideas would work before they existed beyond drawings.

“You never know fully. It's always very difficult to say that with things you're developing now that have never actually existed in real life, only on drawings.

“But everything we've introduced on the car this year has worked. That's very positive, and hopefully we can use that for next year.”

Verstappen also pointed to Red Bull’s planned new wind tunnel as a further factor that could assist the team as 2027 unfolds. The facility is expected to be available next year, though he said the team would first need to see that it operates properly and helps its development work.

“Of course, we'll also have a new wind tunnel at our disposal next year. That's a separate matter, but naturally we hope it will work properly and help us as well.”

Red Bull’s current wind tunnel is the oldest on the Formula 1 grid. Christian Horner, the team’s former principal, repeatedly called it “a Cold War relic” and described working with the 70-year-old facility near Bedford as like looking at “two different watches”, referring to past failures to match wind-tunnel predictions with what happened on track.

That correlation has been accurate in 2026, though Verstappen said the cars’ different width and length may have contributed to earlier problems replicating conditions with scale models. He said the most important change would be having access to the new facility next year.

“Those earlier problems might also have been partly down to the width and length of the car [and what you can replicate with the model]. Of course, we have different cars now, but the most important thing is that we'll be able to use the new wind tunnel next year.”

The new tunnel will not be available for the initial development of the RB23 because that process is already underway. Red Bull will, however, be able to use it for further development during the season, when upgrades are expected to remain important amid an intense battle in the second year under the regulations.

Pierre Waché previously told Autosport that the wind tunnel should become operational in early 2027, possibly in February, as Red Bull indicated in Singapore. The precise timing within the first quarter will depend on steps including calibration, which must give the team confidence in the new facility. Separately, a related report concerned Verstappen joking about coded messages as Red Bull phases in Lambiase’s successor.