“This year, we just had a really tough first half of the season, as everyone knows. But to still be in this fight—at the same time, I think we can be really proud of it because in the middle of the season, at some point, it was almost – not like you lose motivation – but you don’t really see a way forward of actually winning again in this season. It’s almost like you have to hope that 2026 would be better,” said Verstappen the reigning world champion since Abu Dhabi 2021 in the post-race press conference.