Verstappen says Red Bull ‘not the quickest at the moment’

TDT | Manama

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Max Verstappen said yesterday that Red Bull were “not the quickest at the moment” ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but warned it could change as the campaign progresses.

The Dutchman claimed his fourth straight world title in Las Vegas in November with two races to spare.

The 27-year-old is now bidding to join an even more exclusive club with only Michael Schumacher winning five championships in a row.

But while he won the 2024 title by 63 points from Lando Norris, he needed to overcome a mid-season run of 10 races without a win as the McLaren star pushed him hard.

McLaren and its drivers, Norris and Oscar Piastri, are seen as an even bigger threat this year, with Verstappen failing to set the fastest time of any of the winter test days in Bahrain.

Red Bull have had two weeks to analyse the data and tweak their set-ups ahead of the green light on first practice in Melbourne on Friday.

Asked how he rated Red Bull currently, Verstappen replied: “Positive shape, I guess.” But he added: “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out more this weekend and after.

“We’ll try to do our best. There’s not really much more that we can do. Testing is not many days so we found a few areas we can work on and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Verstappen acknowledged there had been improvements to his car in the off-season but said it was too soon to know how it compared to McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.