{"id":25964,"date":"2024-10-29T13:37:28","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T17:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=25964"},"modified":"2024-10-29T13:43:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T17:43:57","slug":"verstappen-driver-line-up-is-not-red-bulls-biggest-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/29\/verstappen-driver-line-up-is-not-red-bulls-biggest-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen: Driver line-up is not Red Bull&#8217;s &#8220;biggest problem&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen lost 10 points to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/29\/norris-could-have-fought-for-victory-without-verstappen-incident\/\" target=\"_self\">Lando Norris<\/a> at the Mexico GP, raising the stakes in an increasingly contentious title battle. Red Bull have made retaining Verstappen&#8217;s crown the priority, who have deemed Perez&#8217;s output as insufficient to compete in the constructors championship. As rumours speculate <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/28\/sergio-perez-liam-lawson-needs-to-be-a-bit-more-humble\/\" target=\"_self\">Sergio Perez&#8217;s future<\/a>, Verstappen explains why driver selection should not be a priority issue at ed Bull.<\/p>\n<h2>Improving the RB20 is Verstappen&#8217;s focus<\/h2>\n<p>Discussion about Sergio Perez&#8217;s future has been near-constant for almost two years. Red Bull have given no guarantees about the 34-year-old&#8217;s future, with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/12\/christian-horner-red-bull-wind-tunnel-has-its-limitations\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner<\/a> refusing to rule out a change before the end of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Since Ricciardo&#8217;s departure, Red Bull have failed to find a driver that can match the efforts of Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p>This is proving costly in this year&#8217;s Championship battle, with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/29\/f1-news-ferrari-upgrades-could-tip-scale-in-development-war\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> and McLaren both benefiting from having two drivers at a similar level.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, Max Verstappen does not see the team&#8217;s driver line-up as a main issue:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;At the moment, that&#8217;s not our biggest problem,&#8221; he told Sky Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"JD8GL5BITMhHXVE5kSINzg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2180843583\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'JD8GL5BITMhHXVE5kSINzg',sig:'XGF1IUBDHmuzh_vGjaGI7szC5zh1nuKZL2qL-09FCqM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2180843583',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We have to improve the car. <\/em><em>Because if the car is better, Checo will also perform better.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m not thinking about such scenarios at all, I&#8217;m just thinking about how we can get faster.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Red Bull inching closer to a decision<\/h3>\n<p>This upcoming Brazilian GP is the final race of the triple-header. After this weekend&#8217;s action, there is a three week gap until the Las Vegas GP.<\/p>\n<p>During this fairly substantial break, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/27\/red-bull-reportedly-enquire-about-franco-colapinto\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull<\/a> are expected to re-evaluate Sergio Perez&#8217;s future. Of course, this is not the first time suggestions have circulated that Verstappen will have a new teammate.<\/p>\n<p>However, unlike on previous occasions, the situation at Milton Keynes seems unsustainable. Both Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have given increasingly damming comments about Perez to the media.<\/p>\n<p>At a team like Red Bull, who aren&#8217;t shy about making mid-season swaps, these quotes are enough reason to at least be vigilant about a potential change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen lost 10 points to Lando Norris at the Mexico GP, raising the stakes in an increasingly contentious title battle. Red Bull have made retaining Verstappen&#8217;s crown the priority, who have deemed Perez&#8217;s output as insufficient to compete in the constructors championship. As rumours speculate Sergio Perez&#8217;s future, Verstappen explains why driver selection should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":25655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,465,79],"class_list":["post-25964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-max-verstappen"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}