Verstappen admits Red Bull is just 'not quick enough'
Max Verstappen admitted that Red Bull simply didn't have the speed and performance needed to challenge McLaren for victory in today's Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
With the grandstands packed with devoted fans, Verstappen had been hoping to extend his perfect unbroken record of three poles and wins at his home circuit since event resulted to the calendar in 2021.
But in the end Verstappen - and the thousands of orange-clad fans - were to be disappointed and frustrated as Lando Norris proved to be in unbeatable form this weekend, finishing the race with a 20 second margin of victory over Verstappen.
"We tried everything we could today," he said in the post-race interview conducted in parc ferme. "But throughout the race I think it was quite clear that we’re not quick enough, so I tried to be second.”
Given Norris' history of never converting pole position to victory because of poor starts, it seemed like deja vu all over again when the McLaren suffered initial wheel spin and Verstappen shot off into the lead in turn 1.
“We had a good start," commented Verstappen. "I know that we have good starts, so I was quite confident that we would have another one, and luckily it was like that. Then I just tried to do my own race."
Everything appeared to be going according to the Red Bull plan over the initial laps with Verstappen successfully pulling away and out of DRS activation range of his friend and rival.
But as the initial stint went on it was the clear that the Red Bull was proving heavy-going on its medium tyres, while Norris had just been biding his time. After an unsuccessful try, Norris finally blew back past Verstappen on lap 18.
What was surprising was just how much speed Norris had over the Red Bull fron that point, both on the initial set of mediums and then after they stopped to take on the hard compound. By comparison, the Red Bull was no where.
"That was my race, and that was second today," Verstappen said. But despite the obvious disappointment, he said there was no reason why the team should panic or be overly concerned by the way things had gone in recent outings.
“The last few races haven’t really been fantastic,” Verstappen acknowledged in the post-race press conference. “So that I think in a sense was already a bit alarming.
“But we know that we don’t need to panic, "he insisted. "We are just trying to improve the situation, and that’s what we are working on.
“It’s just very hard to solve at the moment," he admitted. “I had pretty much the same balance from FP1 all the way to the race, the limitations are the same.
“Something in the car has made it more difficult to drive and it’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment,” he continued. “That is then hurting our one-lap performance but also our long run.
“It just seems like we’re too slow, but also quite bad on [tyre wear] at the moment," he mused. “That’s a bit weird because I think the last few years normally we’ve been quite good on that.
“Something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand," he said, adding that time was clearly of the essence now. "We need to of course quickly try to improve.”
While Verstappen's lead over Norris in the drivers championship remains a healthy 70 points, that's not the sort of unsurmountable dominance he's enjoyed in the last two seasons and leaves him at risk.
And the situation is even more acute in the constructors standings where Red Bull's margin over McLaren is down to a rather slender 30 points - or what F1 engineers might call 'squeaky bum time'.
So while it's not time to panic, the first alarm bells are beginning to sound in the distance - as even Dr Helmut Marko acknowledged after today's race which he called an "alarming result" from Red Bull's point of view.
"The team has to work harder and must find improvements, because like that his championship is in threat," Marko said recalling Verstappen's own pre-summer warnings. "The updates have to bring an improvement."
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