Verstappen: Red Bull’s “monster” and both F1 titles are “not realistic.”
Verstappen finished a distant sixth in the Italian Grand Prix and fears both Formula 1 titles are starting to slip away for Red Bull
Max Verstappen warned “both championships are not realistic” after Red Bull turned its once-dominant Formula 1 car “into a monster”.
Verstappen only gained one spot to finish ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell in sixth place on Sunday after struggling to qualify higher than seventh on Saturday and making little progress on Sunday.
The Dutchman gave up nearly 38 seconds to Ferrari’s victorious Charles Leclerc and more than 30 seconds to title rival Lando Norris in third place, making his victory margin particularly egregious.
By finishing two positions ahead of teammate Norris, Oscar Piastri has helped McLaren close the gap on Red Bull’s constructors’ lead to just eight points.
However, Verstappen’s Verstappen’s 62-point advantage over Norris in the drivers’ standings won’t be sufficient either, as Red Bull still needs to find solutions for the severe balance issues that have dogged the company since May.
Verstappen said bluntly, “At this point, both championships are not realistic.”
“I’ve said a lot, and now it’s up to the team to come up with a lot of changes with the car, since in just six to eight months, we essentially went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car.” We really need to turn the car upside down because that seems really strange to me.
“In a way, yes, but that’s not how I like to look at the championship,” polesitter Norris said in response to the question of whether losing out on a win was a positive thing.
“We must look to our own circumstances; today and this past weekend have not been good.
“We moved too slowly. I must admit that the [six-second] pit stop cost me a little. Due to a minor problem with the engine, I was unable to run the engine at full power for the majority of the race.
Additionally, in terms of strategy, we could have done a better job of participating in the battle to some extent. We were lacking this weekend in many areas.”
