Max Verstappen Fires Warning To Red Bull - 'Could Be Bad From Now On'

Saajan Jogia | Sep 1, 2024

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing prepares to drive in the garage during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco at Circuit de Monaco on May 24, 2024 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. / Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has pointed out the numerous challenges he faced during the Italian Grand Prix, resulting in a sixth-place finish at Monza. The team is grappling with a balance issue on the RB20 F1 car, causing a significant drop in performance. Verstappen has warned Red Bull that if the car's issues aren't resolved, the situation could remain "bad from now on to the end of the season."

After a difficult qualifying session marked by understeer issues, which left him in seventh place, Verstappen started the race on the back foot with the hope of elevating his performance for Sunday's race. However, despite gaining only one position in the Grand Prix, the Dutchman admitted he had extracted the maximum from the car, but the pace simply wasn't there to make significant progress.

The three-time world champion also pointed out a failed two-stop strategy, which added to the troubles. One big factor that also contributed to his setbacks was that the car didn't run on full engine power "because of a problem." Speaking after the Italian Grand Prix, he said during the live broadcast:

"I thought we got the most out of the car in terms of position but not in the way we approached the race.

"The pace was not strong enough so we had to do our own race and had a bad pit stop.

"I think strategy-wise we didn't optimise it. Some cars did a one-stop and we did a two-stop which was not the best.

"For most of the race we couldn't run full engine power because of a problem so that doesn't help. All in all a bad race.

"It would still have been a bad race with full engine power but we may have been more competitive. We were in no man's land.

"If we don't change anything on the car it is all going to be bad from now on to the end of the season. We have a lot of work to do."

Red Bull faces an unusual problem with the car currently, leading it to understeer heavily to the point where it becomes undrivable. Describing the challenge, Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying on Saturday:

"The car is very difficult to drive and find a good balance. If you have one issue and try to fix that, then there is another issue.

"It's not very driveable, let's put it like that. Q2 was not too bad Q3 felt very bad again - I had a lot of understeer on both tyres.

"I lost a lot of lap time, I couldn't really push the tyres, so struggling a lot with that for a reason I can't understand.

"The long runs were not very promising. When you are not balanced, everything becomes difficult in the race.

"The last few races have not been great so we need to turn it around and be competitive."