Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning over RB21 progress

max verstappen Thinks that if Red Bull does not make good progress with its RB21 car then one can forget about winning any championship in Formula 1 next year.

While the Dutchman celebrates his fourth consecutive driver’s title with Red Bull in 2024, he is well aware that the success is due to an impressive start to the campaign that gave him a comfortable buffer in the standings.

And after this the decline in the team’s form opened the doors for the team mclaren To snatch the Constructors’ crown for the first time since 1998.

While Red Bull rediscovered some form in the final stages of the year, Verstappen admitted the competition is now so close that his organization needs to take a good step forward for 2025.

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Speaking about the prospects for next year in an interview with a Dutch newspaper d telegraphVerstappen said: “If we continue like this, I won’t be champion next year. It’s that simple. We really need to take steps to be competitive next season. We all know that.”

“I have confidence in the team that they can fix the balance issues from last season. Some things we couldn’t adjust last year will be changed for next year.

“We know we need to be better on bumps, downs and slow turns. These are usually our weaknesses. If we still lose, it will be based on pure speed.

“I always keep the pressure on, even on myself. I try not to think about things too lightly. At one point the car was barely drivable. There was nothing else to get out of it.”

Verstappen also revealed in the interview how his own input into the car’s characteristics at the Italian Grand Prix helped get the RB20’s development back on track after a mid-season ups and downs.

“All the plans for new parts that were supposed to come after that (the race at Monza) can be thrown in the dustbin,” he said. “The team really started from scratch after that. Before that, they couldn’t figure out the exact problem.

“I saw some graphics when we were looking at the data. We saw some aerodynamic changes in terms of entering corners, turning into corners and ride height.

“It was different from last year’s car. I said, ‘Hey, it’s pretty obvious that this and that is the problem, isn’t it?’ It turned out to be true, I heard later.

“I had not seen those lines and those graphics before. I said then that it was absolutely clear what we had to work on, because the engineers obviously know what was changed in last year’s car.

“At the beginning of last season we were still winning our races, but I still felt that the balance of the car was not what I wanted.

“But, at that time, we still had a big lead over other teams, who may not have had a very good winter.”

Verstappen also took a cheeky dig at rivals and suggested that some of their success was due to using tricks.

“Things happened in the background that meant that in some races we had no chance at all,” he said. “I know it for sure, but no one will ever admit it.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Warding