For the first time since Zandvoort returned to the Formula 1 calendar, Max Verstappen failed to win his home race. The Dutchman briefly gave the packed grandstands hope by striking at the start, but ultimately had to conclude that there was nothing he could do against McLaren’s superior race pace. “The start was fine. I also had a bit of wheel spin myself, but as a team we have that aspect well sorted out. I have to say that the starts in most races go well for us.” The latter can no longer be said of the race pace, as Verstappen also knows. “I tried to drive my own race and manage the tyres as well as possible, but at a certain point nothing turned in the way I wanted and nothing responded anymore. Lando was not close enough on his first attempt, but in the next lap I could not do anything anymore.”
Tire wear is also a problem
After that, the race for Verstappen – not for the first time in recent months – was all about damage limitation, damage limitation with a bad balance in the car. “The whole weekend was actually the same story. I had the same balance from the first practice to the race. It’s just very difficult to solve at the moment. It seems that we are not only too slow, but also bad in terms of tire wear. That’s quite strange because in previous years we were very good with the tires. Something has gone wrong with the car recently. We have to understand that and improve it quickly.”
It is actually the first time that Verstappen openly says what Helmut Marko and others have been thinking for some time, namely that Red Bull has taken a wrong turn in the (further) development of the RB20. The problems that Verstappen is now experiencing were not yet visible in the first few races of this year. “No, the balance problem was not there in the first few races. Something in the car has made it more difficult to drive, but it is very difficult to find out exactly where that comes from. It affects our performance over one lap and also in the long runs. I no longer have good balance at the rear of the car. We have to solve those balance problems quickly, because that also plays a role in tire wear. In any case, we know that we have a lot of work to do.”
Don’t panic, but do get some work done
Marko told this website afterwards that he found the result in Zandvoort ‘alarming’ for both world titles. If Motorsport.com Verstappen asks how alarming he finds the past race weekend for the drivers’ championship, he responds: “This has just been a bad weekend for us in general. We need to understand that better. The last few races were of course not fantastic and that was alarming in a way. We should not panic. We are trying to improve the situation, but Formula 1 is very complex.” In addition to these structural factors, Red Bull has stated that the set-up in Zandvoort was also wrong, as according to Marko, Verstappen drove with too much wing on Sunday. That should normally help to keep the tires alive, but the top advisor concluded: “We lacked top speed and did not benefit from it in terms of tire management.”
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