Max Verstappen hints at foul play during the 2024 F1 season 'that no one will ever admit'

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen hinted at full play from the team's rivals in the 2024 season. The Dutch driver was able to secure his fourth successive world championship in F1 in the recently concluded season, becoming only the fifth driver to achieve that feat.

However, unlike its dominant 2023, the 2024 campaign was a tricky one for the Austrian team outfit as it lost its grip on the constructors' championship despite a strong start to the season.

On some weekends, the RB20 was the fourth-fastest car behind even the Mercedes such as Monza and Baku. In Azerbaijan, the Milton-Keynes outfit was convinced that McLaren and some other rivals were using some "tricks" to gain an advantage.

Speaking this week, Max Verstappen said (via de Telegraaf):

"There were things that happened in the background, which meant that we had no chance at all in certain races. I know that for sure, but no one will ever admit that."

Verstappen and Red Bull won seven out of the first ten races in 2024, all coming from the Dutchman, and had a substantial lead over its rivals. However, a mid-season slump gave opportunities to teams like Ferrari and McLaren to close and eventually surpass it in 2024.

McLaren found themselves the center of a row regarding an advantage it gained from a rear-wing "trick." The Woking-based outfit was told by the FIA to not use the rear wing in the following races, and its charge then slowed down a little.

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Max Verstappen chimes in on how Red Bull gained back lost ground

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen says the Austrian team was able to identify the problem on its RB20 which caused the slump ahead of the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. This led to improved performances from the car in the final six races.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the 27-year-old said,

“I saw some graphs at one point when we were looking at the data. I saw certain aerodynamic shifts in how we entered the corners, turned in, and also in terms of ride heights. Different from the car from the year before. I said: 'Hey, it's very clear that this and this is the problem, isn't it?' And that was right, I heard.

"I had not seen those lines, those graphs, before. I said then that it was clear what we had to work on, because of course the engineers know exactly what had been changed compared to the car from last year."

After the upgrades in Austin, Max Verstappen once again found himself among the winners as he won the Sprint race at COTA. He went on to win the two main races in Brazil and Qatar to officially seal the drivers title, ahead of Lando Norris.