Red Bull “have a lot of work to do to fight for a win”

Max Verstappen says Red Bull need to make a lot of progress with their car to challenge for victories after McLaren won the season-opening race last weekend.

He finished less than a second behind race winner Lando Norris on Sunday. However he fell over 18 seconds behind the winner at one stage until a Safety Car deployment wiped out his disadvantage.

The pace McLaren showed at that point in the race, when Verstappen lost over a second per lap to them at times, highlighted where Red Bull are weaker than their rivals, said Verstappen.

“If you look at the first stint, we were quite a bit off,” he explained. “As soon as the tyres started to overheat we had no chance. McLaren just took off.

“So we still have a lot of work to do to fight for a win. But I’m happy that we are second here. It’s basically one place better than we should have been and it’s 18 more points than I had last year at this race.”

Verstappen spent around a dozen laps pursuing Norris closely at the start of the race but began to drop back when light rain fell and he ran wide at turn 11. Red Bull will focus on improving how their car treats its tyres in upcoming races, he said.

“I could see it coming. I was struggling with my tyres. It was similar to [Saturday]. Intermediates are even more of a soft compound, so they are even more prone to overheating.

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“That’s where we – and a lot of teams – are struggling compared to McLaren. They’re simply doing a better job on that. That’s what we need to work on.”

Despite finishing the race within striking distance of Norris, Verstappen doubted he could have passed the McLaren.

“I tried my best, tried to be close, tried to put a bit of pressure on, but it’s very hard to pass around here,” he said. “There was only one line.

“Even if I had gotten a run into, whatever, turn nine, you have to go onto the wet part, so you can’t really do a lot. But at least it was close. It looked good on TV.”