Verstappen laments Red Bull's regression: "We are now at the back of the leading group"

There was a time when the position of Max Verstappen on a starting grid was never in doubt… but those days seem to be over. The last time the Dutchman started a Grand Prix in the lead was last June, in Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix. Since then, nothing. In Italy, on Saturday, he did not manage to do better than a 7^e place, just in front of his teammate at Red Bull Sergio Perez and behind the McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Enough to frustrate the triple world champion, twice winner at Monza (2022, 2023), perplexed after the qualifying session.

« It's just that Q3 was very bad., summed up Max Verstappen after Q3. With my two sets of tires, I had a lot of understeer and I couldn't attack the corners anymore. You lose a lot of lap time with that. In Q2 it wasn't so bad (with a time of 1'19″6) and we were almost the fastest. We know our limits, we know our problems, but at that point I thought we had things under control. I went to Q3 and the balance was completely off. I don't really understand how that could have happened. »

« Of course, we are now at the back of the leading group, so let's see how it will evolve., confided the Dutchman. It is difficult to say how competitive we will be during the race compared to others.. It's going to be a long race, especially where we're starting from. It could end with a DRS train, but the pace on the long runs looks more promising than on a flying lap. If we can preserve our tyres, we should be able to make progress. »

"We don't understand" Verstappen lets go

Beyond the frustration, it is a feeling of incomprehension that dominates Max Verstappen. As if the world champion was stunned by this turnaround. It is not so far from the time when Red Bull outrageously dominated the championship and each Grand Prix with its Dutch driver.

The evolution, the change in the balance of power, has been so sudden in favour of McLaren, that Red Bull is even surprised to see the two other leading teams overtake them. Despite this observation, Max Verstappen cannot explain this lack of performance and struggles to find the causes of this 7^e place in Italy.

« I think there is something wrong with the car, continued the Dutchman. We are trying to get to the bottom of it. First we need to understand the problem, then we need to understand how to solve it, and finally we need to implement it. There will be a technical solution to a technical problem. We need to fix it quickly. We can see that McLaren have made significant progress in the last few races and we are now behind Ferrari and Mercedes here too, so there is a lot to do. »

ALSO READ > Antonelli to start at Mercedes in 2025: Deciphering a risky but courageous decision