Verstappen accused of lacking fight as he faces ‘very strange situation’

Max Verstappen has been accused of lacking fight as he struggles to become a four-time F1 champion.

Verstappen stretched his winless run to seven grands prix, during which time he has only finished on the podium on two occasions, resulting in his lead over McLaren rival Lando Norris now down to 59 points with 206 on the table.

The weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix almost proved to be a two-year nadir for Verstappen as he was running seventh with two laps remaining and on course for his lowest finish since the 2022 Singapore GP.

Team-mate Sergio Perez’s penultimate lap crash with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz erased the possibility of that statistic featuring in a year that has quickly turned sour for the Red Bull driver following a dominant start in which he won four of the first five races, and seven of the opening 10.

At the Baku City Circuit, Verstappen was even out-qualified by Perez for the first time in 33 races, lining up sixth compared to fourth for the Mexican as he again struggled with the balance of his car.

During the race, Verstappen complained about the RB20 “jumping”, that the brakes were not working at one stage, and later that there was “no rear grip” as his tyres degraded.

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 champion, feels Verstappen is no longer the punchy character of old and that his demise is slowly starting to get to him.

“Max, for the last few races, sounds very downbeat, like he’s not even feisty in the race,” assessed Villeneuve on Sky Sports F1.

“He doesn’t fight that hard. Even on the radio we barely hear him, so something has changed.

“It’s as if he knows he hasn’t won [for a while], he knows it [the car] is not driving like he wants.

“Now his team-mate was a lot quicker than him. That’s a very strange situation.”