Verstappen dissapointed: Red Bull seems to have slept through the winter
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- Ludo van Denderen
A fifth world title in a row now seems like a pipe dream for Max Verstappen. His Red Bull Racing car is not fast enough to challenge McLaren and Ferrari, as was made clear during the first day of the 2025 season. The problem? Red Bull would not know exactly how to improve the RB21.
Experienced as Max Verstappen is, he was fairly neutral in his analysis after the opening day in Melbourne. Having finished seventh in the second free practice, the Red Bull Racing driver said he was not surprised by the pace shown, "so I am not positively or negatively surprised by the pace we are showing".
There had been no major problems during free practice, so the pace difference with McLaren and Ferrari could not be pinned on that. And so, six tenths in today's Formula 1 is a massive gap, one that won't just be fully made up overnight.
Lawson's speed a signal regarding the RB21's qualities
Keeping in mind that it was Max Verstappen who was over six tenths behind leader Charles Leclerc, with the Dutchman essentially being someone who knows how to extract the maximum potential out of a car, that his teammate Liam Lawson was as much as 1.2 seconds slower than the Monegasque was partly due to his inexperience at the Albert Park circuit, but was also a signal of how fast the RB21 goes in the hands of an average driver.
Criticising his team in the open is not something Max Verstappen is keen on doing. But GPblog did learn that Verstappen is disappointed with Red Bull and the current state of the RB21 - a car that currently lacks the qualities to be a serious contender for the world title. The Dutchman realises this all too well.
Red Bull sleeping through the winter?
Of course, it was only the first day of a long season ahead, but in the Dutch camp the conclusion has already been drawn: this car is not good enough. The feeling is that the team has been sleeping during the winter break, even though there were plenty of indications that it needed to change course drastically after what was a very mediocre second half of the 2024 season.
Why Red Bull failed to build a better car than its predecessor during the winter? GPblog understands that Red Bull simply does not know what the solution is, to make the RB21 as fast as its rivals' cars. If that is indeed the case, it will be a particularly long season for the always extremely ambitious Max Verstappen.