Max Verstappen

Why Max Verstappen has proven Red Bull myth WRONG

The triple world champion is under big pressure in the championship title fight

Daniel Austin

Wednesday 4 September 2024 12:57 Updated: 17:15

When he crossed the finish line in first place at the Chinese Grand Prix in April, taking his fourth win from five races and finishing over 13 seconds ahead of his closest challenger, a fourth successive drivers’ championship appeared a foregone conclusion for Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

After all, this was driver and team continuing to operate at their imperious best, harnessing their clear speed advantage to trounce fellow competitors for whom the moniker ‘rivals’ would have been far too kind a description.

Though cars are developed throughout the course of Formula 1 seasons, and the competitive order may undergo incremental changes over an extended period of time, Red Bull’s advantage so far outstripped that of the rest of the field that Verstappen’s chances of matching or even potentially outdoing his record of 19 wins in a single season set in 2023 seemed realistic.

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Fast forward a little less than five months, and after finishing sixth in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen has now won just three of the last 11 races (including none of the most recent six), leading him to believe he is unlikely to take a single further victory before the end of the season.

“Nothing went well,” the 25-year-old said. “The car didn’t respond at all. I also didn’t like the strategy. The pitstop was s*** as well. And most of the race we had to drive with less power due to issues.”

As reviews of race days go, Verstappen’s was about as comprehensively damning as it could have possibly been.

What has happened to Red Bull’s performance?

The Red Bull has lost huge ground to its rivals

Anybody who watched the RB20 toil around the Monza track could hardly have disagreed with the triple world champion’s appraisal, though. The car seemed to struggle with significant sliding through some of the circuit’s quicker corners, looked skittish in the slower ones, and appeared to never give its drivers a moment’s peace from issues.

On Saturday the car had been inexplicably slower in the final part of qualifying than in Q2, giving Verstappen a mountain to a climb as he qualified a lowly seventh.

In race trim the Red Bull was equally unable to compete with the Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes cars ahead. Verstappen drove solidly but could not make an impression on those competing for the podium, finishing ahead of only George Russell of those who started ahead of him, with even that gain coming courtesy of damage the Mercedes man was carrying.

“Well done, Max,” said principal Christian Horner over team radio once the chequered flag fell. “That was a good drive. Sorry we couldn’t give you a better car this weekend.”

Horner was correct both with his praise for Verstappen and his apology for the machinery the Dutchman is piloting. As rivals behind them, McLaren especially, delivered a series of development upgrades to their respective cars following Red Bull’s stellar start to the season, Red Bull themselves have actually chipped away at their own performance and have ceded further ground as time has gone by.

Upgrades Red Bull have brought to the RB20 seem to have significantly worsened the car rather than improving it, to the extent that in recent races they have opted to return to configurations for elements like the floor from earlier in the season.

Team advisor Helmut Marko admitted to BBC Sport that the team has caused its own problems, saying: "We lost [performance] with some updates. We have to go back to when the car had a better balance."

What does Red Bull’s performance mean for Max Verstappen’s title challenge?

Max Verstappen's title chances have taken a significant hit in the past few months

The simple reality is that Red Bull is only the fourth fastest team on the grid at present, having been streets ahead out front not that long ago.

For Verstappen, the lack of performance in the car is profound enough to put his chances of retaining the championship at serious risk, despite the 62-point advantage he still boasts over second-placed Lando Norris.

"The car is undriveable," Verstappen said. "It is a massive balance problem we have and that, of course, is not only over one lap but also in the race. We basically went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car in the space of six to eight months. That is very weird for me and we need to really turn the car upside down."

For the first time in years Red Bull are on the back foot. That Verstappen is still so far ahead of Norris is down to his own skill – he finished only three places behind the Brit at Monza despite the enormous difference in performance of their respective cars, and the fact that he managed to finish second on home soil at Zandvoort last week and even led the race for 18 laps now looks like a tremendous performance given the car’s clear ills.

When Verstappen was so relentlessly on top between 2022 and the early part of 2024, plenty were quick to dismiss his achievements as merely down to the car. The fact that team-mate Sergio Perez was unable to deliver anything anywhere near Verstappen’s level should have been a clear indication that his supreme skill was playing a significant role, but that wasn’t enough for some.

Well, now Norris has been in the pace-setting car for months, and still he has won only two races while throwing a far greater number of potential victories away. Winning every week in the fastest machine is perhaps not a walk in the park, then.

Now that the Red Bull has dropped so far down the pecking order, even Verstappen’s biggest critics should have no doubt that he is – and always was - delivering excellent performances and wringing the absolute maximum out of the vehicle. The idea that he wasn’t and/or isn’t, is a complete myth.

Whether his level of performance is enough to win a fourth successive championship remains to be seen. But if he does manage it from this position, it will be clear that Verstappen has earned it the hard way.

Red Bull Max Verstappen Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix drivers' championship