Max Verstappen didn’t hold back in his criticism of Red Bull’s distinct lack of performance and operational mistakes in the last few races, that culminated in a lowly sixth place finish at the 2024 Italian GP – and even went as far as saying his chances of retaining the drivers’ world championship crown are “unrealistic” given their car is now “undriveable”.
The Dutchman qualified down in seventh and could only make up one place in the race, following George Russell’s early damage that required the Mercedes driver to change his front wing and lost valuable time.
The championship leader’s race unravelled after a tardy first stint on the hard tyres and a slow pit stop of 6.2 seconds lost him crucial time. More importantly, it was another set of hard tyres that went on to his Red Bull, meaning he was obliged to make a second pit stop at some point to comply with the regulations, which require every driver to use at least two different dry tyre compounds during the race.
Speaking to selected media after the grand prix, Verstappen revealed that he was also fighting some engine gremlins that slowed him down, as well as the poor strategy and general lack of pace:
“It was pretty boring. We were too slow, the [slow] pit stop also cost me a bit, and I couldn’t run full power for most of the race as well, we had a little issue with the engine,” he revealed. “I think also strategy-wise we could’ve done a better job to be at least a bit more competitive.
“It wouldn’t have changed the position, but I think we didn’t do our optimal race.”
When asked if decision to start on the hard tyres was the main issue on the strategy, Verstappen, who hasn’t won a race since June’s Spanish GP, believes the decisions taken afterwards – and even a lack of attention to detail with his battery usage, which caused his radio outburst asking the team to “wake up” – is what made the difference in not maximising the potential race time:
“No,” he responded when asked if he regretted staring on the hard tyres. “I think it’s just how we then approached the rest of the race [that cost us].
“[The radio message] had to do with my battery percentage, because of course there are certain levels where you are at, and certain modes that you use.
“Basically I see the battery cost topping up, and at one point maybe you can go into a faster mode. So I asked, and they were like, oh yeah, you can. Come on, these are so obvious things that you need to be on top of.
“I know that I’m not racing anyone, but that shouldn’t matter. It’s still an F1 race where you have to maximise everything.”
The stark contrast to the beginning of the season is what struck Verstappen, who said it is “weird” that the team has managed to turn what was a dominant car into an undriveable “monster” in the space of a few months with the development path it has taken – and gave a blunt assessment of the situation, noting that the car is now “bad everywhere”, independent of track-specific characteristics:
“I mean it doesn’t matter with how we are at the moment,” he said about track-specific struggles. “We are bad everywhere, so we need a lot of changes.
“It’s up to the team to come with a lot of changes to the car, because we basically went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car in the space of, what, six to eight months. That is very weird for me.
“We need to really turn the car upside down.”
And whilst he admitted he “would’ve liked” for senior technical chief Adrian Newey to continue in the team, he stopped short of crediting the team’s downfall to the star designer leaving at the beginning of next year:
“I’ve always said that I would have liked for Adrian [Newey] to stay, always, but it’s not about that now.
“Because last year we had a great car, which was the most dominant car ever, and we basically turned it into a monster, so we have to turn it around.”
The Dutchman continued his brutally honest review of Red Bull’s weekend by pointing out that even the pit stops – which were one of its main strengths for several years, with record pit stops being set every other race – are now failing, which along with an “undriveable” car makes for a situation in which retaining eitherchampionship is an unrealistic proposition at this point:
“I think today and this weekend we were weak on a lot of fronts, and a pit stop like that again, it’s not ideal.
“At the moment both championships are not realistic.
“The car is undriveable, and it’s a massive balance problem that we have. And of course it’s not only over one lap, but it’s on the rest.”
Despite his rival Lando Norris slashing eight more points off his championship lead, the McLaren driver couldn’t maximise a race in which he started from pole – but that is no consolation to Verstappen, who said they need to rely on its own fortunes to win:
“In a way, [it helps], but that’s not how I like to look at the championship,” he said when asked about Norris’ sub-optimal race. “We have to go from our own fortunes, and today it’s all the opposite.”
With just eight more races remaining and three Sprint events, the championship leader now holds an ever-reducing 62-point lead over Lando Norris, and with McLaren just eight points behind in the constructors’ race, it’s game on for both championships.
