Verstappen honest about problems at Red Bull: "There are quite a few things"

Max Verstappen knows that Red Bull Racing needs to do better if it is to challenge the Mercedes in the battle for the world title in Formula 1. Verstappen sees that the Austrian race team is doing very well in operational terms, but notes that a different approach may have to be taken in other areas.

"There are quite a few things at the moment," is Verstappen honestly talking to Formula1.com. "First of all we are always too slow at the beginning [of the season], so we need to make sure we have a car that hits the ground running and is a lot more competitive."

Especially the correlation between the wind tunnel and the performance on the track needs to improve. During the first Grands Prix this season this was not in order, which made development very difficult. Especially during a short season like this (due to the corona virus) it hurts a lot.

Red Bull operational excellent

The cars of 2021 are almost identical to those of the current season. So there are still some steps to be taken in the short winter period. "How to do that? Clearly we haven’t found it, so we need to change our approach. We need to find a different way of working. In terms of operations, we are good: we have really good pitstops, we’re good at strategy. I don’t think there are a lot of things that go wrong there."

It's not just Red Bull that has to work, Honda, as an engine supplier, has to improve as well. Compared to the Mercedes engine it was not good enough. "Clearly this year we were lacking in power. There are quite a few things we have to work on to be able to fight them (Mercedes)," said Verstappen.