{"id":31453,"date":"2025-03-14T11:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T15:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=31453"},"modified":"2025-03-14T11:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T15:39:02","slug":"max-verstappen-does-not-expect-red-bull-to-fight-for-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/14\/max-verstappen-does-not-expect-red-bull-to-fight-for-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen does not expect Red Bull to fight for wins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although Max Verstappen enters this year as the defending Champion, the consensus is that he could struggle to claim a fifth world title. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/08\/red-bull-gap-to-mclaren-likely-increased-over-winter-break\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull&#8217;s development<\/a> last season was poor by the Austrian team&#8217;s usual standards, as they <strong>lost ground to the other front-runners<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Over the winter break, there were suggestions that Red Bull could struggle to rectify some of their fundamental issues from last season.<\/p>\n<p>In the very early stages of the Australian GP weekend, <strong>there are concerns about the RB21&#8217;s limitations<\/strong> &#8211; and whether it will be enough for Verstappen to mount a title bid.<\/p>\n<h4>Verstappen: Balance was reasonable, but still lacking pace<\/h4>\n<p>One of the prominent themes that followed Red Bull last year was the poor drivability of their single-seater.<\/p>\n<p>Sergio Perez was extremely vocal about his disconnect with the car, and Verstappen added to these complaints before too long &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/11\/mclaren-could-be-one-second-faster-than-red-bull-warns-marko\/\" target=\"_self\">especially as McLaren made up ground<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, the Dutchman&#8217;s early dominance <strong>covered some of the car&#8217;s fundamental weaknesses<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>However, the last ten months have forced Red Bull to confront their problems.<\/p>\n<p>Team principal Christian Horner has even admitted that his personnel could struggle to break the ever-approaching <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/09\/christian-horner-admits-red-bull-have-hit-the-ceiling\/\" target=\"_self\">development &#8216;ceiling&#8217;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In fairness to the Milton Keynes outfit, they have undoubtedly made progress over the winter. Verstappen is generally happier with the balance of the RB21 than its predecessor.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"5_FWrUMVS8ljPDzeJNOJSw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2204826421\" 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:'5_FWrUMVS8ljPDzeJNOJSw',sig:'NxkpbCtfTpYM6TW0wRGFsKm_C6uQM7PYJC9oJmKLCYA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2204826421',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With that said, <strong>the 4-time Champion believes there is a considerable gap<\/strong> to the front:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;To be honest, the balance wasn&#8217;t even completely out,&#8221; <\/em>he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;No massive or major problems, but <strong>somehow the grip was not coming alive<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And just <strong>struggling on all four tyres<\/strong> really, in sector one and the last sector.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;That means, of course, we&#8217;re just not really up there at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The problem is that I don&#8217;t really have any major, like balance problems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;So I think <strong>it will be a bit hard to fix<\/strong>, but it&#8217;s also nothing I didn&#8217;t expect when I arrived here.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;So I am not positively or negatively surprised by the pace we are showing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We&#8217;ve never really been that good here, as soon as that tarmac update. So for sure, it&#8217;s not really helping.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But still, it&#8217;s the same for everyone right? So we just have to make sure we find a bit more pace. But <strong>at the momen<\/strong>t<strong>, we are definitely lacking<\/strong> a bit to fight at the front.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"1toMVgwFS3Vljz6mv5U1Pw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2204812938\" 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:'1toMVgwFS3Vljz6mv5U1Pw',sig:'XErh_qh9GvXZ-ZR5V0qAWhlj6kkZgOJILDZiVHLzBxM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2204812938',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>No margin for error at Red Bull<\/h4>\n<p>Despite there being a definitive top 4 group last year, qualifying sessions were extremely competitive.<\/p>\n<p>The likes of Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso <strong>often upset the top teams on Saturdays<\/strong>, even whilst lacking the machinery to compete with them over a race distance.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, there is a real possibility that qualifying becomes even closer. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/11\/williams-manage-expectations-amidst-positive-signs-from-fw47\/\" target=\"_self\">Williams have shown flashes of strong pace<\/a> on low-fuel, even if their best laps were set on emptier ranks than other teams.<\/p>\n<p>Still, in the hands of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, they could be legitimate Q3 threats.<\/p>\n<p>Alpine look to have build upon last year&#8217;s strong finish to produce a solid challenger for 2025, whilst <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/13\/aston-martin-newey-focusing-entirely-on-2026-car\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Martin<\/a> are already looking far stronger than the narrative after Bahrain testing suggested.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, <strong>Red Bull must ensure they optimise the RB21<\/strong> ahead of qualifying tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although Max Verstappen enters this year as the defending Champion, the consensus is that he could struggle to claim a fifth world title. Red Bull&#8217;s development last season was poor by the Austrian team&#8217;s usual standards, as they lost ground to the other front-runners. Over the winter break, there were suggestions that Red Bull could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":31455,"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":[2452,78,720],"class_list":["post-31453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-verstappen"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31453","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=31453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31458,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31453\/revisions\/31458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}