Verstappen sees no solution after Zandvoort: 'Checo wasn't fast either....'
F1 News
What was meant to be the best race weekend of the 2024 season for Max Verstappen soon became one to quickly forget. The Dutchman hoped to race to victory in front of the 'Oranje Army' at the Dutch Grand Prix last time out, but Red Bull were no match for McLaren's superior pace, with the three-time world champion finishing 22 seconds behind Lando Norris in P1.
After taking his third championship title in 2023 in one of the most dominant seasons Formula 1 has ever seen, Verstappen and Red Bull have not been able to do so this time around, with inconsistent performances hampering their progress in the title fights. Verstappen may still be 70 points clear in the drivers' standings after Norris' win in Zandvoort, but McLaren sit just 30 points behind Red Bull and come into the Italian Grand Prix this weekend in the best form possible.
Verstappen "still complaining" about the RB20 issues
Speaking to the paddock in Monza, including to GPblog, Verstappen admitted that these issues have stalled Red Bull's progress: "We need to find more performance and better balance because we are still complaining about the same balance issues [at Zandvoort]. We had a bit of an idea, but it's not like Checo's car was very fast either, right?"
The balance issues which the Dutchman mentioned reared their head at Zandvoort once more, despite trying to make some changes to the RB20. Verstappen continued by saying he did not know why those issues resulted in such a poor performance from Red Bull: "It was difficult to get a read in Zandvoort with the rain and the wind. Different weekend now. Besides the stuff we want to try on the car, the track is quite different. We need to keep track of that to make the right calls. We are trying a lot of stuff to improve the balance of the car."
But despite the domination that McLaren gave its rivals, Verstappen refused to say that it was a wake-up call for him and his team: "I wouldn't want to call it a wake-up call. It was not the best weekend for us for different reasons. We couldn't just get the car to work how we wanted it. Probably the wind made it very difficult for our car with the balance issues that we have. It's just not the strongest weekend."