Max Verstappen ‘should be concerned’ with Red Bull urged to act in ‘losing streak’ warning

Max Verstappen has not won even one of the last six races

Banging his steering wheel in Monza before declaring both titles are “not realistic”, David Coulthard says Max Verstappen has just cause to be concerned having not won any of the last six races.

Verstappen and Red Bull had a troubled weekend at the Italian Grand Prix where the reigning World Champion was almost seven-tenths of a second shy of pole position before bringing his RB20 home in sixth place.

David Coulthard says Max Verstappen ‘should’ be concerned about losing the title

Still the better of the two Red Bull drivers, Helmut Marko claimed the “talent” can no longer drive around the RB20’s balance issues which have been exacerbated by recent upgrades.

A notable misstep in Hungary forced the team to dial back on their upgrades with Red Bull now in a race to figure out exactly where they went wrong.

But while Marko says they made a breakthrough on Saturday that allowed them to take a decision on how to move forward, today the team is facing the loss of the Constructors’ Championship and perhaps even the Drivers’.

McLaren recorded a double podium at Monza to close the gap to Red Bull to eight points while Lando Norris’ P3 means he’s 62 points behind Verstappen, and Verstappen is worried.

“At the moment, both championships are not realistic,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Monza.

Coulthard says he has every right to be worried.

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“He should be concerned,” he told Channel 4 after the race. “I think the whole team are concerned.

“They haven’t built on the upgrades. Unlike McLaren who have found performance, they haven’t moved forward. They need to unlock the performance in that car.

“Right now, he’s on a losing streak that’s going to be very difficult to turn around unless they come up with something that really ignites that car’s performance.”

He added: “They’re definitely not as hot as they were. The lap time doesn’t lie. they’re on the back foot.

“The upgrades haven’t worked, and they’re no longer the benchmark in terms of outright performance. They know that, they can’t hide from it.

“They have a group of people that designed and built a brilliant race car last year, a car that’s won seven races already this year, but they’re upgrades are not working, they need to find something in the coming days.”

While McLaren have nailed their upgrades this season, putting a heavily revised car on the track in Miami and winning their first of four races this season, Red Bull’s big update in Hungary created balance issues with the RB20.

It led to a notably frustrated Verstappen finishing P5 that day as he ranted on the radio. That was evident again in Monza as he raced to sixth place with a slow pit stop and an engine issue leading to him telling Red Bull to “wake up” even if their “sh*t” performance meant a lowly result.

Coulthard said of that: “Look, we know that he’s feisty, we know he’s got a lot of passion.

“Of course, the upside is when you’re winning everybody loves you. When things are not going well, that raw passion comes through again.

“They can control it, there’s no question about it. But they need to unlock some potential in that car. The upgrades haven’t worked, but it’s still within the capability. They’ve still won seven Grands Prix this year.”

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