Max Verstappen says that Red Bull is starting to understand more about the weaknesses of the difficult RB20 – but he admits that solving its issues will take time.
Verstappen called the car a “monster” after a difficult Italian GP that saw him qualify seventh and finish sixth, allowing Lando Norris to put a dent in his championship lead.
The Dutchman says that the Monza weekend provided useful lessons to the team about the car.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” he said. “But I do think that in a way Monza was positive to learn more about the car, and now it just takes time to make the car better basically, and understand our weaknesses.
“I think we did. Now it’s about just trying to find solutions for it. I also know that it’s not coming within one or two weeks, from when you understand your problems.
“But yeah, I hope that from now onwards we could just look ahead and try to be better, not like a monster.”
After the Italian race Verstappen said that the drivers’ championship was now unrealistic for him.
Asked by this writer if he stuck with that view he said: “If we perform like Monza, it’s not realistic. So we definitely need to be better than what we have been delivering lately. We know that.”
He added: “I also know that we can do a better job in general, and if we understand our problems, then, yeah, if we can find a better balance with the car, then actually we’ll be more competitive. And if more competitive is enough, I don’t know.”
Verstappen acknowledged that Baku might be more suited to the RB20 despite its problems.
“Yeah, it’s a completely different track. So for sure, you have different kind of limitations, potentially, but we’ll see throughout the weekend.”
Verstappen downplayed the impact of Adrian Newey stepping back from the frontline duty earlier this year on the car’s form.
“I wouldn’t say it’s just that,” he noted. “Of course, when it was announced, that’s where it started to go a little bit wrong for us. But I think it already started to go wrong for us a long time before, but we didn’t really see that at the time.
“So I personally don’t think it’s related. That is not to be of course negative towards Adrian or whatever, I definitely don’t see it as something that is related, but it’s something that crept in over time.”
Regarding Christian Horner’s suggestion that the problems began in 2023 he said: “The car last year was quite different to this year. This one was always difficult.
“But of course, there are things that you develop over a period of time that add up to it. To say a specific race, I don’t know, but it’s been a period of time that it’s been going on.”
Verstappen said he had no concerns about McLaren team orders potentially improving Norris’s chances of eating into his championship lead.
“I’m not disappointed,” he said. “At the end of the day of course, they do what they want. That’s not my problem. I have my own problems at the moment.
“So yeah, of course, from Oscar’s side, he’s closer to Lando than Lando is to me in the championship, but it’s something that they have to deal with.”
“They’ve never really been that far apart anyway in the championship as well. And also from Oscar’s side, you come in as a number one driver, both of them. I don’t think Oscar is the type of driver that needs to be labelled as number two anyway.”
Adam Cooper F1 