Max Verstappen surprised everyone last week by achieving an incredible pole position and victory in the Japanese F1 Grand Prix, but this weekend he was brought back down to earth and, thanks to incidents during the race, managed to salvage sixth place in the race classification. The question is whether he will really be able to fight for the F1 World Championship.
Verstappen and his problems with Red Bull
After finishing the race in Bahrain, Max Verstappen was very disappointed with the performance of the Red Bull and expressed this in his post-race appearance, stating that it is impossible for them to fight for the championship at this point. “We are not in the fight for the championship, we are just trying to solve the problems we have with the car.”
In addition, the driver lamented the car’s lack of performance, indicating that they tried everything they could and still do not understand what the problems with the car are.
“If you look at it that way, we couldn’t have done better than sixth place, regardless of the strategy. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, so I didn’t enjoy it very much. Of course, we were too slow for the front runners and we were fighting in the midfield, which is not our level.”
“We’ve tried everything on the car and nothing works, so it’s not that either. If I had to do qualifying again now, I wouldn’t know what else to adjust. We’ve tried everything, everything that makes sense on this track.”
Disagreement with Marko
Helmut Marko sought to justify the performance, commenting that despite the tire wear, the RB21 was still showing good pace on certain laps, even matching the McLaren cars. But Verstappen disagreed. “I don’t agree with that. I think we’re generally bad on one lap and also bad in the races, especially against McLaren. In relation to Ferrari and Mercedes, we could have a little more chance, but yesterday we weren’t good in the long run either.”
Real options for Verstappen and Red Bull
At the moment, Verstappen’s only options for winning the world championship are his own driving and the doubts surrounding McLaren, which is still unable to take the step forward needed of a championship-winning team and is embroiled in an internal dispute over who is the lead driver. In terms of Red Bull’s performance, the options look complicated. The team needs to step up and bring new improvements if they want to get back to the top of the World Championship. The only good news for Red Bull this week is that it is the first Grand Prix in which it has managed to get both cars in the top 10, with Yuki Tsunoda finishing the race in ninth place.
Max Verstappen is the best driver in Formula 1 right now, there’s no doubt about that, but he needs something more to be in contention for the drivers’ championship. He is currently third with 69 points, just eight points behind Lando Norris, who is in first place. The Briton’s mistakes and the competition with Piastri are what is allowing the gap to be so short and giving him a chance to win his fifth world title. But right now, it is logical that this gap will widen if they do not step up their game. We will see if his talent and hunger allow him to stay close to the leaders. There is still a long way to go in the championship, it is very close, and any change in the next few races could bring about a radical change in the World Championship, but now something more is needed.