Verstappen says Red Bull need to push to find a solution for current struggles
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen insists that the Milton Keynes-headquartered outfit will need to find solutions for its current struggles to come back stronger after the summer break.
Although Max Verstappen dominated the wet conditions in Saturday's qualifying session, setting the benchmark from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Red Bull have endured a very difficult Belgian Grand Prix.
A ten-place grid drop meant that the Dutchman only lined up 11th on the grid. While the reigning champion managed to overcome similar grid penalties in the last two years to take dominant victories in 2022 and 2023, he seemingly struggled for pace yesterday and ended up down in P5.
“All in all it was quite a positive day for me, considering we started at P11, and we finished in front of Lando who is my main rival in the Championship.
"I think we did everything right with the strategy today and I had a good clean start. I was in the DRS train and it was difficult to pass, but I think strategy wise we did everything that we could to the limit.
"It was tough to make it with two mediums and a hard tyre and we could potentially have taken more position if we started with the hard tyre, but I think we did a good job and maximised our result today. It wasn’t realistic to start P11 and fly to the front, so I am overall happy with our performance.
Following an ominous start to the season, Red Bull appear to have slipped down the pecking order with McLaren seemingly having a stronger car. Although he still dominantly leads the standings, the reigning champion hopes Red Bull will find answer for its struggles.
"We are looking forward to the summer break and having a bit of time to relax, but at the same time we are committed to being better and faster and are trying to find solutions as we go into the rest of the season.
"However, everyone has been doing a great job and will have a well deserved break. We had a great start to the season, our last few races have been a bit more difficult, but we have been pushing to find a solution how to do that.
"Next race is obviously my home race in Zandvoort. It will be a tough battle and it will be all about tyre management, but it will be great to be in front of my home crowd again," noted Verstappen.
