Verstappen: Red Bull’s main issue is F1 car, not drivers

Max Verstappen has steered his Crimson Bull System 1 workforce must concentrate on fixing its troubled 2025 automobile quite than fear in regards to the id of his team-mate.

After two troublesome weekends alongside Verstappen, Red Bull has demoted Liam Lawson to Racing Bulls, with Yuki Tsunoda moving in the other direction from this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Whereas Crimson Bull has the remit to maneuver its 4 drivers round throughout the 2 groups it owns, and has achieved so up to now, handing Lawson simply two rounds to adapt has been felt as significantly merciless by colleagues and observers.

Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde likened Crimson Bull’s strategy to “bullying” on his Instagram profile. “Sure, you gotta carry out. Sure, the stress is insane. However in my view this comes nearer to bullying or a panic transfer than precise excessive athlete achievements,” he wrote. “They decided – absolutely conscious – gave Liam two races solely to crush his spirit.”

The submit was appreciated by Verstappen, who according to driver advisor Helmut Marko disagreed with the decision to swap drivers. And whereas the Dutchman did not wish to increase an excessive amount of on his personal opinion, he stated he did not work together with Van der Garde’s message by mistake and felt Crimson Bull’s fundamental focus must be on the drivability and efficiency of its troublesome 2025 automobile.

“Nicely, I appreciated the textual content, so I assume that speaks for itself, proper? It was not a mistake,” he stated. “My response was shared with the workforce, however usually. Not solely the swap, however about the whole lot. We mentioned that already over the past race weekend and again on the manufacturing facility.”

When requested if he agreed with the choice, he responded: “Generally it isn’t essential to all the time share the whole lot in public.

“I feel our fundamental challenge is that our automobile just isn’t the place we would like it to be. Everybody is aware of that inside the workforce as nicely and that is what I concentrate on, to be sincere. As a result of as quickly because the automobile is extra aggressive and extra drivable usually, then I feel even within the second automobile it should come to you anyway a bit extra naturally.

“Liam did 11 races or one thing in complete [before 2025] however over a unique time period. And I feel for rookies the start of the season could be very robust, as a result of most of those tracks they have not actually pushed on, or they merely have a dash weekend. So all these eventualities do not assist.”

Verstappen, who frolicked in Crimson Bull’s UK manufacturing facility to have a deep dive with the workforce’s engineers into his automobile’s issues, stated there is not only one challenge that’s inflicting the RB21 to change into unstable and lack steadiness.

“It’s a little bit extra nervous, a bit of bit extra unstable in several nook phases,” the Dutchman defined. “I feel it is a mixture of a number of issues. It relies upon additionally on the nook pace, the tarmac, tyres, overheating, bumps, kerbs. Some tracks are extra limiting than others. Some points are simpler to resolve than others. Everyone seems to be attempting their hardest to make the automobile quicker.”

Verstappen heads into the Japan weekend second within the standings after grabbing second in Australia’s rain-affected race and salvaging fourth in China, however he nonetheless believes McLaren is “comfortably forward” and will probably be onerous to catch.

“Each observe is a bit totally different, however in the mean time, they’re fairly comfortably forward,” the four-time world champion stated. “By no means say by no means. We come to each race attempting to get one of the best out of the automobile however in the mean time, I do not assume – even when we optimise our efficiency – that’s sufficient. However we hold working.

“We’re attempting to have the efficiency coming this yr nonetheless, but when it’ll be sufficient to beat McLaren it is very troublesome to say, as a result of the others are additionally enhancing.”

Further reporting by Erwin Jaeggi

Photographs from Japanese GP – Thursday