Max Verstappen has acknowledged that Red Bull faces significant challenges as it aims to compete for victory in this weekend’s Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
Despite holding a commanding 78-point lead in the championship, Verstappen has been winless for the last four races, as competitors have closed the gap. Heading into his home Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Verstappen is feeling the pressure as Red Bull seems to be lagging behind McLaren and Mercedes.
In the rain-affected first practice session (FP1), Verstappen finished second behind Oscar Piastri. In the subsequent drier session, he dropped to fifth place, trailing both McLaren and Mercedes cars. The data from these practice sessions revealed that Red Bull is struggling to match its rivals’ performance over both short and long runs.
“We didn’t get much running in FP1, but FP2 showed where we stand,” Verstappen said. “We’re a bit too slow on both short and long runs. There’s no clear solution yet, but we’ll be working on it. Simply put, we’re too slow.”
Verstappen was not surprised by Red Bull’s struggles, noting that similar issues were evident in the lead-up to the summer break. “This has been the trend over the last few races, so it’s not a shock,” he stated. “We’ll be working to find more performance for the race on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, teammate Sergio Perez, who is under scrutiny regarding his future with Red Bull, also faced difficulties. He finished FP2 in 12th place and confirmed Verstappen’s concerns. Perez revealed that Red Bull was testing various solutions to address their issues.
“We’ve been experimenting with different setups,” Perez said. “Our day might look worse than it actually is in terms of performance. I made a mistake in Turn 12, which cost me some time. Overall, we need to improve, especially our long-run pace to catch up with the leaders. We’ve been running different setups on both cars, so we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
