Source – Total Motorsports
After Lando Norris dominated the Dutch GP on Sunday, championship leader Max Verstappen seems to be worried about Red Bull’s speed. Norris is Verstappen’s closest rival in the championship fight.
Max Verstappen has raised concerns over Red Bull’s performance, admitting that their pace is “a bit alarming” after being unable to prevent Lando Norris from dominating the Dutch Grand Prix. The race at Zandvoort, which should have been a showcase for Verstappen on home soil, instead highlighted some unsettling trends for the team. Norris, who overcame a shaky start, outpaced Verstappen by nearly 23 seconds, even securing the fastest lap on the final circuit to claim an extra point.
Despite still holding a 70-point lead over Norris in the Drivers’ Championship with nine events remaining, Verstappen’s current form is far from reassuring. He hasn’t claimed victory in any of the last five races, marking his longest winless streak since 2020. Reflecting on the situation, Verstappen remarked, “The last few races haven’t been fantastic. That in a sense was a bit alarming.”
Red Bull’s struggles aren’t just about a single race or a bad weekend. There’s a deeper issue with the car that’s proving difficult to identify and rectify. Verstappen, while maintaining that there’s no need to panic, emphasized the complexity of the problem. “Something in the car has made it more difficult to drive and it’s very hard to pinpoint that at the moment. That’s hurting our one-lap performance and long run [pace],” he admitted.
The Dutchman’s discomfort with the car was evident throughout the weekend. In qualifying, Norris outperformed him by over three-tenths of a second, and during the race, the McLaren driver demonstrated better tire management, allowing him to overtake Verstappen with relative ease. McLaren’s upgrades for Zandvoort appear to be propelling the team forward, continuing their upward trajectory from before the summer break.
Verstappen’s frustration was palpable as he spoke to the media post-race. “I’m not surprised with how my feeling was in the car. I couldn’t do anything. Everything I tried to do… I said it during the race, whatever I do with the car, the inputs are not really translating,” he shared. He went on to describe the disconnection he felt with the car, noting, “When I steer left, it doesn’t feel like it does immediately. Or it just doesn’t turn how I want to. It’s very complicated to understand why that is and how we fix that.”
The start of the race was one of the few positives for Verstappen, but even that quickly turned as Norris waited for the perfect moment to capitalize on Verstappen’s tire degradation. “Quite early on in that stint, Lando was waiting for the opportunity. I degged a bit and couldn’t make the tires work. He came by, and from that point onwards, I was focused on bringing it to the end in the best possible position,” Verstappen reflected.
As the championship leader, Verstappen’s struggles are amplified by Red Bull’s recent difficulties in the Constructors’ standings. Their lead over McLaren has shrunk to just 30 points, with Oscar Piastri finishing fourth and Sergio Perez sixth at Zandvoort. Red Bull’s dominant start to the season, where they won four of the first five races, now seems like a distant memory. The team’s development path during the European leg of the season may have taken them down a wrong turn, contributing to their current lack of pace.
Team principal Christian Horner acknowledged the challenges they’re facing, revealing that Verstappen and Perez ran different car specifications during the race to gather data and understand their issues better. “McLaren were very fast today. All credit to them. We took a bit of a gamble because we thought the degradation would be quite high, so we went up on the downforce level to maximum downforce,” Horner explained. Unfortunately for Red Bull, the gamble didn’t pay off as expected. The lower-than-anticipated degradation left them slow on the straights, particularly for Verstappen.
However, there is a silver lining to the weekend’s struggles. Horner pointed out that the data collected from running both cars with different specs would be crucial in diagnosing their problems. “Max is very clear on where we need to improve,” Horner added, indicating that the team is already hard at work to find solutions.
As Red Bull heads into the next phase of the season, the pressure is mounting. With Verstappen in an unfamiliar position, the team must quickly address their issues if they hope to maintain their championship momentum. For now, Verstappen remains cautiously optimistic but acknowledges that only time will tell if they can turn things around before it’s too late.
