Max Verstappen has been out of contention for a race win since June, and the 2024 season has started with such signs that we wouldn't be surprised if the world champion runner-up suffered the biggest defeat of all time. The "peak" of his slump so far was clearly the Italian Grand Prix, where the team held a crisis meeting...
Moreover, because Verstappen sensed the root of the problem, which could theoretically put Red Bull on the path to improvement. Theoretically…
"Max acknowledged on Saturday where the starting point of the problem is, that is, what the car's weakness is. After the crisis meeting with the engineers, we came to a joint decision on how and how to return to the field of competitiveness. Therefore, a single component is responsible for the anomaly, we just have to filter out which element it is, what is spoiling the balance so much," said Dr. Helmut Marko.
Although recognizing the mistake is a big step towards improvement, Verstappen is far from optimistic:
"I have said it many times and to many people, it is now the team's turn to make a series of changes and find out which component turned one of the most dominant racing cars of all time into an undriveable and uncompetitive monster. It is a huge mystery to me, but we will go after it, we will turn the car around without excuses, and it does not matter how many weeks it takes. We have to fight with full force, because no matter how big the advantage we have at the moment, our chance of defending the title is not realistic," - assessed Max Verstappen with a not at all cheerful attitude.
