Max Verstappen reveals major problem with Red Bull RB20 after crushing Dutch GP defeat

Max Verstappen on the podium for Red Bull at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has said there’s no reason for his team to panic yet, despite the dominance on display by championship rival Lando Norris.

Despite taking the lead at the start and getting track position ahead of Lando Norris, Verstappen was overtaken and left in the dust by the McLaren driver as he came home over 20 seconds behind his championship rival at Zandvoort.

Max Verstappen: Something wrong with Red Bull car we need to understand

With Red Bull struggling to fight for wins in what has been a rapid turnaround from the form shown by the reigning World Champions, Verstappen’s big lead in the Drivers’ Championship no longer looks quite as secure as it has in the past.

Victory at Zandvoort was completely out of reach, despite his early lead, with Verstappen having no answer to the pace shown by McLaren as Norris popped in the fastest lap on the very final lap on aged hard tyres.

Reviewing the weekend from his perspective as he spoke to media, including PlanetF1.com, following the race, Verstappen said there is some head-scratching going on at Red Bull as the team attempts to figure out what’s gone wrong.

“The whole weekend has been the same,” he said.

“I had pretty much the same balance from FP1 all the way to the race. I mean, the limitations are the same. So yeah, it’s just very hard to solve at the moment.

“It just seems like we are too slow, but also quite bad on [tyre] deg at the moment.

“So that’s a bit weird because I think, in the last few years, normally we’ve been quite good on that. So something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand, and we need to, of course, quickly try to improve.”

Asked what the issue he’s experiencing with the car is, he explained: “It’s just not a connected balance, front to rear.”

Max Verstappen: Not the easiest Red Bull I’ve ever had

Speaking to Sky F1 following the chequered flag, Verstappen explained some of the difficulties he’s experiencing with his RB20.

“I couldn’t do anything – everything that I was trying to do, whatever I do with the car, the inputs are not really translating,” he said.

“So when I steer left, it feels like the car is not steering left immediately, or it just doesn’t turn how I want to, you know?

“It’s very, very complicated to understand also why that is and how we can fix that.”

The Dutch driver explained he’s been feeling these issues for some time during the season, with the severity of the problem dependent on the characteristics of the circuit he’s driving on.

“Quite a while already. At some tracks, it’s a bit worse,” he said.

“It depends a bit on the type of track. But, yeah, it’s not easy.”

Asked to say whether the RB20 is the most difficult Red Bull he’s had during his years with the team, Verstappen smiled: “It’s, let’s say, not the easiest.”

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Given how Red Bull started the year in dominant fashion, Verstappen was quizzed on whether the balance deficit has crept in as a result of the upgrades introduced to the RB20 through its development, or whether he could feel the shortcomings right at the start of the season.

“It wasn’t there in the first few races but, yeah, something in the car has made it more difficult to drive,” he said.

“It’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment.

“That is then hurting our one-lap performance, but also our long run.”

With Helmut Marko branding Red Bull’s weekend “alarming” given the performance on display from McLaren, Verstappen said there’s no reason for panic to set in just yet, having salvaged second place from what he viewed as a bad weekend.

“I think this weekend was just a bad weekend in general, so we need to understand that,” he said.

“But, in the last few races already, they haven’t really been fantastic, so that, I think, in a sense, was already a bit alarming.

“But we know that we don’t need to panic. We know we are just trying to improve the situation, and that’s what we are working on. But F1 is very complicated.”

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