Steiner shoots down the Verstappen title talk: 'Let's wait a little bit'

The four-time world champion has been well off the pace of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with the challenging RB21 struggling to compete with the dominant McLarens throughout the season.

After some updates were brought to the Italian Grand Prix by Red Bull, there appears to have been an impressive turnaround in the machine's performance, with Verstappen going on to win in Monza and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to take consecutive race wins.

However, despite this return to form to throw himself into the championship discussion once again, Steiner is not too sure how many more wins Verstappen can seal.

"I don't think Max will win a lot more races this year. I think the McLarens will," the former Haas team boss said on the Red Flags podcast.

The return to form for Verstappen has seen him close the gap on Piastri to just 69 points in the drivers' standings after the Australian crashed out on lap 1 in Baku.

Due to this return to form for the four-time world champion, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is adamant that Verstappen cannot be discounted from the championship fight.

In the Red Bull camp, there has been a lot of tempering of expectations, including from Verstappen himself, saying that he "personally doesn't think about" the chance of bringing himself back into the title battle.

Advisor Helmut Marko also remained tight-lipped about the chance the 27-year-old could make it five consecutive world titles, but there was also no ruling out the prospect from the Austrian.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton gave the papaya-coloured team a warning about Verstappen and Red Bull after the Austrian team updated the RB21, saying he "expects they're probably going to win all races."

However, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso does not believe Red Bull will be in so much control, stating that the drivers' title "depends on McLaren, not so much on Max's performance".