Verstappen: ‘Red Bull can’t fight for win in Melbourne’

Max Verstappen has dominated Pink Bull out of competition for victory forward of Components 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Though reigning champion Verstappen has gained 4 world titles in a row and took pole by 0.270s in the newest Melbourne occasion, Pink Bull slid down the pecking order all through the 2024 marketing campaign, as McLaren surged to the entrance whereas Ferrari and Mercedes additionally turned constant challengers.

Bahrain’s pre-season testing hinted at an analogous hierarchy in 2025 as McLaren impressed with its long-run tempo.

Pink Bull, nonetheless, seemed much less aggressive and was hindered by quite a few points. The workforce carried out no race simulations after Liam Lawson encountered a water strain loss, whereas the RB21’s behaviour stays trigger for concern.

Verstappen didn’t show a lot optimism as testing got here to a detailed, and the Pink Bull driver opened as much as Dutch media – together with Motorsport.com – on Friday at a Viaplay occasion, expressing the extent of his fear.

“I do not assume we are able to struggle for the win already in Melbourne,” the Pink Bull driver stated, though he admitted that “every little thing [on the RB21] might be arrange a bit bit higher in Melbourne than in Bahrain”.

Requested what number of groups might compete for world titles in 2025, Verstappen designated McLaren: “In the intervening time just one, and that workforce is orange! That is a really good color after all, however from our aspect, we nonetheless have work to do. Different groups wish to see some enhancements as properly, I feel, so for the time being one workforce is clearly in entrance.

“For those who have a look at the lap occasions, then I feel McLaren is the favorite. On our aspect, not every little thing went utterly easily, however however we’ve some concepts on the right way to enhance.”

On the conclusion of the Bahrain operating, technical director Pierre Wache painted a downbeat image, calling the occasion “not as clean a take a look at as we anticipated” and admitting to being “not as pleased as I might be as a result of the automobile didn’t reply how we needed at occasions”.

The RB21’s predecessor was notoriously troublesome to deal with; Pink Bull has been striving to resolve this explicit drawback for nearly a yr now and it looks like the squad hasn’t been in a position to totally iron out the problem.

As reported throughout testing, the RB21 suffered from an inclination to understeer in sluggish corners whereas oversteering in high-speed curves on the Sakhir monitor.

“By way of steadiness, it does really feel a bit extra related when coming into the corners and likewise in the midst of the corners,” Verstappen analysed. “However however, there are nonetheless issues with the kerbs and with the bumps.

“These issues are clearly not our strongest factors, and I maintain mentioning that. It would not at all times should be stated to the surface world, however throughout the conferences we clearly discuss rather a lot about it.”

No less than, as Verstappen put it throughout testing, the brand new automobile “can’t be worse than final yr” – even when it fails to match the RB20’s early-season highs.