Last year, both Red Bull and Max Verstappen had an unbelievably dominating year. No other team really managed to catch up to them except in the 2023 Singaporean Grand Prix. Ferrari and Carlos Sainz Jr. won the race in San Marina Bay last year. But all in all, the whole year belonged to the Austrian team’s dominance. Even at the start of the 2024 season, it seemed like the reigning champions would win the title convincingly once again. But things started to change a little bit since the Australian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen had a shocking DNF in Melbourne. Again, it was Carlos Sainz Jr. who broke the streak of the Dutch racer.
However, McLaren and Mercedes suddenly rose to title contentions. Lately, the Ferrari duos, McLaren duos as well as the Mercedes duos have shared one race win so far this year. Albeit, Max is still enjoying a healthy lead on the Driver’s championship standings, it is Red Bull that’s dealing with a risk to fall down the ladder. The three other teams mentioned above are rising steadily in the constructor standings. Lately, Verstappen showed his frustration after missing out on the podium finish in Hungary.
Max Verstappen Is Not Happy With Red Bull Right Now
Everybody knows that the Dutch driver is a perfectionist. Last year, they were winning constantly, finishing with 21 wins from 22 races. Even then, Verstappen was pointing out where they could get better. When there were rumors that Mercedes could sign the triple-time champion, he said something along the lines of “I care about the performance, that’s my job, Red Bull car is still best in performance, why would I look elsewhere?” But in the last three races since the Austrian GP, Max Verstappen has failed to get on top of the podium. Lately, the Dutch racer was very frustrated with his performance in Hungary. In the post-race interview, as per GPblog.com, Max Verstappen mentioned, “I’m not happy with how things are going, and sure, it can be another 12 long races.”
He also said that there are some people within Red Bull Racing who must wake up because things are going absolutely in the wrong direction. But he did not want to name any names. Moreover, the reigning champion said that the RB20 car did not have optimal speed in Hungary. However, he expected it to deliver “A bit more.” Adding to that, Verstappen said that the McLaren duo was much stronger than them on the long run and he doesn’t quite see Red Bull get better “There either.” During the interview of barely 5 minutes 45 seconds, it was easy to see that frustration was dripping off the Dutch racer’s face in the media area at the Hungaroring circuit.
Sergio Perez Doesn’t Want To Give Up
Recently, in an interview with GPblog.com, Sergio Perez mentioned that the most important thing to look at is the current situation as a challenge. In any job, people tend to look for the fun element. Checo is not having fun anymore. He said, “I won’t call it fun but challenging.” Moreover, he said the easiest thing to do is to just give up since it has been mentally so tough and the kind of career “I’ve had.” He can just say, “It’s enough.” But that’s not something he wants to teach his children. He said, “I want to show a different character to them.”
Things can change in Red Bull dramatically. They can replace Checo with any driver available in the Driver’s market or in their RB team. On the other hand, Max Verstappen can just leave the team. He said it will depend on Helmut Marko’s future. As per Verstappen, he is loyal to the 81-year-old F1 consultant, and “If he’s gone, I’m gone.”
Stay tuned with Sports News International for more such updates about your favorite F1 team.