Verstappen left stunned by Red Bull misery as F1 champion jokes about cursed luck

The four-time world champion has endured one of the toughest seasons of his F1 career, with Red Bull struggling to adapt to the sport’s new regulations. While rivals Mercedes have emerged as the benchmark, Verstappen has been left fighting simply to remain competitive and within the cost cap restrictions.

Speaking after another frustrating Saturday at Silverstone, Verstappen pointed to yet another technical issue that derailed what had initially looked like a promising qualifying session. After securing an encouraging third place in Sprint Qualifying, Red Bull suffered a power unit problem before Grand Prix qualifying, leaving the Dutchman unable to challenge for the front rows.

"There is no point racing like this," Verstappen admitted after revealing the latest reliability setback. The reigning champion explained that without a fully functioning power unit, there was little chance of extracting the performance needed to compete with Mercedes and Ferrari.

Asked by GPBlog whether he could explain Red Bull's seemingly endless run of bad fortune, Verstappen could only laugh.

"Maybe I've hit a black cat," he joked, before admitting that every weekend seems to bring another setback. From reliability problems and balance issues to poor race pace, the Dutchman believes almost everything that could have gone wrong this season has done exactly that.

Perhaps even more concerning for Red Bull is Verstappen's belief that Silverstone will not be the last difficult circuit on the calendar.

The 27-year-old expects upcoming races at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza to expose the same weaknesses that have plagued Red Bull throughout the opening phase of the season. With the current power unit package struggling on high-speed circuits, Verstappen does not expect a dramatic turnaround in the short term.

Despite continuous development work back at Milton Keynes, the Dutchman admitted it will be extremely difficult to close the gap to Mercedes before the end of the campaign.

The difficult season has also fuelled ongoing speculation over Verstappen's long-term future and a possible switch to McLaren, although Red Bull remain determined to convince their star driver that progress is coming.

Team principal Laurent Mekies has repeatedly stressed that development remains the priority, but results have been hard to find as the team continues to learn its first in-house Red Bull Ford power unit under Formula 1's all-new regulations.

For Verstappen, however, the immediate focus remains on simply getting through weekends without fresh setbacks.

His tongue-in-cheek "black cat" remark may have raised a smile, but behind the humour sits genuine frustration. After years of dominating Formula 1, Verstappen now finds himself hoping that Red Bull's luck finally begins to change, because right now, he believes the team cannot catch a break.