Max Verstappen doubts Red Bull’s problems with its F1 car have been “fully fixed” as he prepares to start his latest title defence.
Although he strolled to the 2024 title, the success was built on Red Bull’s strong form in the first 10 races of the year, in which he won seven times before an alarming slump in form from the RB20, which the team did not manage to fully rectify over the course of the campaign.
In pre-season testing, the RB21, the first Red Bull in 20 years not to be designed by Adrian Newey, looked off the pace, with new technical lead Pierre Waché indicating the machine was well behind those from McLaren and Ferrari.
Verstappen is aiming to become the second driver in F1 history to win five straight world drivers’ titles after Michael Schumacher between 2000-2004, but feels it could be an uphill task.
“What kind of shape, a positive shape, I guess,” Verstappen told media including RacingNews365 when asked how Red Bull was shaping up ahead of the new season.
“I don’t know, I guess we’ll find out more this weekend, but we will try and do our best, there is not really much more we can do.
“We’ve found a few things to work on and that’s what we will continue to do, I know that we are not the quickest at the moment, but it is a very long season.
“At the end of [last] season, it looked completely different and so things can always change quickly in Formula 1.”
When then pushed by RacingNews365, Verstappen added that he wanted to make the RB21 “more driveable.”
“We’ll try and make it as competitive as possible and of course up until a certain point, and I don’t know when that is, you will focus on this year and on different things.
“We will make it driveable but at the moment, it is difficult to say if things have been fully fixed or not, we just have to be patient.”
