Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies is "confident" the team can give Max Verstappen a faster car for the remainder of the Formula 1 season.
Verstappen is considering walking away from the sport due to his dissatisfaction with Formula 1's new regulations but has also not been able to fight at the sharp end of the field.
For the first time since 2017, Verstappen has gone three consecutive races without finishing in the top five and his latest disappointment came at Suzuka on Saturday where he was knocked out in Q2, before recovering to eighth in the race.
Due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, there are no F1 races in April, so Mekies is hopeful Red Bull will make "a very good step forward" for the next round in Miami in early May.
"We need the time to simulate back what we see in the data into the tunnel, into our simulator, try some sensitivities and all of that we can do without racing," said Mekies.
"Does it mean you come to Miami and you have solved everything as a miracle? No, but again, am I confident that the team will get to the bottom of that understanding and start bringing improvements already in Miami. That's what we will see but only the track and the lap time will give us an indication on whether we go into the right directions.
"I don't think we should expect miracles about the amplitude of closing the gap because the is substantial but what we would like to see is to have a car where our drivers can push again, measure a gap to competitions in these conditions when we are able to push and then the rest will be pure development to the end of the year."
Red Bull are sixth in the Constructors' Championship while Verstappen is only ninth in the Drivers' Championship, having fought for a record-equalling fifth straight drivers' title last year.
The Dutchman spent most of the Japanese Grand Prix battling Alpine's Pierre Gasly for seventh but felt he was unable to get by due to the battery deployment regulations.
Verstappen stated he was "trying to hang on" during the race as the car balance was "unpredictable" in a similar fashion to qualifying, where he was bumped out in Q2 by Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad.
"This is not sustainable for us as a team. We need to work hard to understand our problems and bring improvements," he told Your Site F1.
"You can have a bad balance but that doesn't take away how we have to race. I commented on that already a few times. That is a limitation. A lot of drivers are speaking out on it. That's the biggest one for me.
"Of course I would like to win, but I can also accept if I'm driving P7. The way I'm driving, P7 with the systems, is not a lot of fun."
Mekies said he has had "zero discussions" with Verstappen over the four-time world champion's future in F1, despite his frustrations.
"We have a lot of work to do. I'm sure by the time we give him a fast car, he will be a much happier Max," he said.
"By the time we give him a car he can push and make the difference with, he will also be a happier Max. Honestly that's 100 per cent of our discussions right now.
"As per the regulations, they are coming with some good aspects and more tricky aspects and as a sport, with the other teams, we will meet in the break to see how we can tweak them to make things better."
Red Bull expected a challenging 2026 as they have built their own power unit, in collaboration with Ford, for the first time. However, it appears to be the chassis and aerodynamics which are the biggest problem for Verstappen, rather than engine performance.
Verstappen crashed in the first qualifying of the year in Australia but came through the field from 20th to sixth, while Isack Hadjar had qualified third, so there were encouraging signs at Red Bull.
But they scored no points in the China Sprint weekend with Verstappen retiring from the Grand Prix due to a coolant failure and continued to struggle with starts too.
Asked where the potential Red Bull had in Australia had gone, Mekies said: "We certainly think that in China we made a step back and we measure that not only against the top guys but also against the midfield that got closer to us, so in China we for sure made a step back.
"I don't think it's a product of the number of corners only. There's a layer where in certain cornering speed and cornering conditions we lose some performance compared to what our package is supposed to give us, so this we need to work on.
"It was a touch better in Japan compared to China, especially in the race. We didn't see it because we were again a distant fourth [best team] and it doesn't interest anyone to be a distant fourth. But the overall gap is what we have been talking about, it's about one second to the best guys and half a second to the best Ferraris is probably where we are at."
Formula 1 returns on May 1-3 with the Miami Grand Prix, the season's second Sprint weekend, live on Your Site F1.
