“Need to find more performance”: Max Verstappen opens up on mindset heading into Italian GP

Max Verstappen has lamented the balance issues on the car that hampered their performance at the Dutch GP. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda in Monza, the Red Bull Racing driver felt that the team needs to improve its balance and find more performance to get a better understanding of the RB20.

In Zandvoort, Max Verstappen got beaten by a margin of more than 20 seconds on his home track, as the RB20 struggled to deliver the desired results. He came out of the race calling the gap to McLaren ‘alarming’ and said that both the drivers' and constructors' titles were under threat.

Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, ahead of the Italian race, the Dutchman reckoned that despite the experiments of trying different spec chassis on both cars, the balance issues continued. Horner had mentioned that there was positive feedback from both drivers after the race in terms of the different spec floors they had tried out. He also reckoned that experiments will continue on the RB20 at the Monza weekend, until they are able to tap into the optimum performance window that grants them competitiveness.

Asked by Sportskeeda if the data from the Zandvoort race with different spec floors being experimented was encouraging at Monza, Max Verstappen said:

“Yeah I mean, we had a bit of an idea of course of the cars, but I mean, it's not like Checo’s car was suddenly very fast right. So need to find more performance and better balance, because we were still complaining about the same balance issues.”

Asked where it has gone wrong with the RB20 and if the experiments on the cars will continue, Max Verstappen said:

“Well, I mean, the problem was that in Zandvoort, with the wind and rain it was very difficult to get a bit of a read. But again, different weekend now. Of course, besides the stuff that we want to try in the car, the track is quite different. So, also need to keep track on that, you know, to make the right calls. But we're trying a lot of stuff, to improve the balance of the car.”

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Max Verstappen credits Red Bull's struggles with Zandvoort's top balance issues

Max Verstappen credited RB20 performance struggles in Zandvoort to the balance issues with their car. He felt that the gap to McLaren was not a wake-up call for Red Bull, but an overview of a bad weekend. The reigning champion said that the wind and rain made it difficult to get an understanding of the car performance. He shared that some of the issues were related to the correlation problems in the past. Red Bull’s complaints in the past were related to the performance numbers in the wind tunnel not correlating to the numbers on track.

Asked by Sportskeeda if their struggles stemmed from the correlation issues they’ve had in the past, Max Verstappen said:

“Yeah, for sure. Some things might not have correlated how we wanted it, but in general also I think we need to fix the general balance of the car, the behavior. So this is something that yeah, creeped in and now we have to try and get rid of it.”

Asked whether the performance in Zandvoort and the gap to McLaren was a wake-up call, Max Verstappen replied:

“I wouldn’t want to call it a wake-up call. Its just not the best weekend for us for different reasons, we were just not able to get the car to work the way we wanted it. The wind made it very difficult for our car, with the balance issues we have. Just not the strongest weekend.”

Max Verstappen being beaten at his home race by a margin of 22.7 seconds was more than a statement from McLaren. However, a larger part of the statement relates to what McLaren got right rather than what Red Bull got wrong. According to Horner’s statements after the Dutch GP, Red Bull's rivals had made more performance gains with improvised front wings than with improvised floors. Currently, Red Bull has a lead of 30 points over McLaren, but it can easily diminish, given the nine race weekends remaining on the calendar.