Reigning world champion Max Verstappen is not sure where Red Bull stands ahead of this year’s F1 Australian GP. He already expects McLaren to be the quickest come raceday, and in the FIA press conference he didn’t add any hope for his fans.
“Positive shape, I guess. I don’t know,” Verstappen underwhelmingly answered when asked what shape Red Bull are in.
“I guess we’ll find out more this weekend and after, but we’ll try to do our best. There’s not really much more that we can do. I think testing is not many days, so we found that there are a few areas that we can work on and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Last year’s RB20 proved more and more difficult to drive as the season progressed. This meant Red Bull eventually was powerless in the battle for the constructors’ championship. This year’s challenger, the RB21 is an improvement, but according to Verstappen the team isn’t there yet.
“I think actually there’s an improvement,” he explained. “But I think I said it before, there are still things that we want to improve on and then do better. Now, naturally this is, of course, also a different track to Bahrain, so that already will feel a bit different to drive the car here, but yeah, step by step.”
Verstappen: “Things can change quickly in F1”
Last year the Australian GP was the first race that showed some cracks in Verstappen and Red Bull’s bastion. This eventually lead to a close-fought season, ending in Verstappen’s fourth crown. Whether this would be repeated in 2025, the Dutchman could not say.
“Impossible to know at the moment,” he responded. “I mean, I know that we are not the quickest at the moment, but again, it’s a very long season.
“If you would have asked that question here last year and then at the end of the season again, it would be completely different. So a lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula One.”
Focus will eventually shift to 2026, Verstappen says
With new regulations coming in for next season, there is always the question of when the focus will shift from upgrading the current car to designing the new one.
“We’ll try our best to make it as competitive as possible,” Verstappen explained. “Of course, it’s the final year of the regulation, so I guess up to a certain point, and I don’t know where that is, of course, you focus on this year.
“And eventually, of course, you focus on a whole different thing. So yeah, we’ll make it more drivable. But Bahrain is very different to what we get here, so it’s a bit difficult to say if things have been fully fixed or not.
“I guess we just have to be patient and see how much we can regain, I’d say.”
The weather forecast shows that the weekend will start dry, but it also expects some showers on Sunday afternoon. So with rain looming over the Australian GP, Verstappen of course got the question which he prefers.
“Actually, I always like it to be dry because it’s just nicer, also for the fans. But if it’s wet, it’s wet. It’s fine as well.
“But I don’t know how we will perform in dry or wet at the moment, you know, so it’s a bit difficult to say.”
