"It must be killing him at the moment": Adrian Newey's manager on Max Verstappen's mental state after a string of disappointing results

Adrian Newey's manager Eddie Jordan has applauded Max Verstappen for the results he pulled out of the car earlier in the season when Sergio Perez struggled. The former F1 owner also commented on what the Red Bull driver would be going through as he struggles to get underwhelming results.

The 2024 F1 season started perfectly for Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The team dominated in three of the first four races, as the Dutch driver won from pole position while his teammate came home in second. The upgrade produced by McLaren in Miami, however, proved to be the turning point, as the Austrian team has been on a slow but steady downward spiral since.

McLaren, on the other hand, has been a team on the ascendance. The situation has become so dire for Red Bull that in Monza, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri sealed the front row, Max Verstappen was in a lowly P7 position. Adrian Newey's manager and former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan talked about the plight of Max in light of the recent results.

Jordan commended Max for the kind of results he pulled out of the car and wondered how the three-time champion would be feeling right now after the recent results. On the Formula for Success podcast, Eddie said (as quoted by "PlanetF1"),

“We were all slagging off Perez, but maybe that’s the speed of the car. What Max is doing is what Max is able to do. Without any doubt, he is the best driver in Formula 1 at the moment. Therefore to finish, fifth, fourth and sixth or whatever… It must be killing him at the moment,” he said.

He further claimed that dropping Sergio Perez was never on the table and that Red Bull had 'faked' it. Talking about the Mexican, he said,

“I think that Red Bull faked it. They should have made a decision, and it will come back to bite them, because I now believe they won’t win the Constructors’ Championship, having looked a dead cert. But that’s the way you roll the dice,” Jordan said.

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Jordan's word of advice for Max Verstappen's boss

Eddie Jordan had a word of advice for Max Verstappen's boss, Christian Horner, as he said that Red Bull needed a complete investigation into what had gone wrong with the car. The team had started the season strong but has been going through a slump in form as the season goes on.

Questioning the efficiency of upgrades brought to the car, Jordan said (via the aforementioned source),

“Let’s say you’re the team boss. What is the first thing you would do? You say okay enough of the crap, we need to see facts. All engineers come into the boardroom, and we will have a heart-to-heart about exactly where we are. What was the set-up we had at the beginning of the season? What was the set-up when we were winning races by 15 seconds and were cruising? What has changed?"

He added,

“Show me the upgrades because, sure as heaven, those upgrades have not worked. You are fooling yourself. You are trying to believe in a wind tunnel that is giving you miscalculations."

Despite Max Verstappen struggling with the car recently, the Red Bull driver still holds a 62-point lead in the championship. With that being said, the driver would be a bit nervous about his title defense considering where the form guide is with McLaren.