Verstappen argues Red Bull went wrong well before Newey's departure

After the Italian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was clear: he no longer considered his chances of winning the World Championship as realistic. Lando Norris and also Lewis Hamilton burst into laughter when they heard Max's statement. They both judged it as an emotional reaction after the race, although Norris thought that Max could have used it to his advantage after a poor race. However, Verstappen does not suddenly think differently about it two weeks later.

Even two weeks after the Italian Grand Prix, it is clear that Verstappen is not going into the race weekend full of confidence. "If you perform like Monza, it's not realistic. So we definitely need to be better than what we have been delivering lately. We know that."

How the RB20 became a monster, according to Verstappen

If it was not realistic after Monza, it will obviously be difficult in Baku too: "I know that it will not be good again one or two weeks after understanding the problem. I just hope that from now on we can move forward, get better and not have a monster (of a car)."

The fact there have been problems at Red Bull Racing has been clear for some time. Sergio Perez stated in Baku that he has been suffering from these problems all season, where Verstappen, according to Perez, could drive around the problems for a long time with his driving style. Verstappen himself has also been open about the problems with his car for a long time, but he said he was not heard at the beginning of the season. "I've always complained about the balance of the cars, so it's nothing new to me as well. But it's been something that maybe creeped in over a long period of time," Verstappen stated in a response to a question from GPblog.

Although the timing is remarkable, Verstappen insists that the disappointing performance has nothing to do with Adrian Newey's departure. The top designer announced his departure from Red Bull Racing in Japan, after which Red Bull's performance declined. According to Verstappen, however, the two issues have no direct relationship to each other.

"I wouldn't say so. When it was announced, that's when 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 negative towards Adrian or whatever, but I definitely don't see it as something that is related, but it's something that creeped in over time."

Will Verstappen go to Aston Martin?

According to Verstappen, the RB20 has slowly become a monster—possibly already starting with the RB19. Problems that were long hidden under the dominance are now coming to the surface, and the competition is taking advantage of them. Verstappen sat down with his engineers to find the problem, but how soon the solution will arrive remains to be seen.

Should Red Bull prove unable to do so, the door is open for Max Verstappen at Aston Martin. Adrian Newey was wanted by many teams, but for Verstappen, the door is also open for everyone. With Honda and Adrian Newey, Lawrence Stroll has two strong assets to ever approach Max. Verstappen himself held off that boat for now: "I have other worries at the moment that I'm paying a lot of attention to and that I'm working on. That is something maybe for the future that I think about, but not now."