Max Verstappen has delivered a bleak assessment of Red Bull’s prospects, insisting its position as the fourth-fastest team is “not really going to change” in the upcoming rounds unless upgrades are introduced.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The four-time world champion finished a lonely fourth in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and found himself unable to challenge, or even keep pace with, Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes duo and Lando Norris.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It has become a recurring theme of Verstappen’s season, with the Dutchman lacking the package needed to consistently challenge for the leading positions unless those ahead encounter problems.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
In qualifying, Verstappen came agonisingly close to beating Kimi Antonelli to third on the grid but ultimately had to settle for fifth.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
For Verstappen, the situation heading into the remainder of the campaign is clear: introduce significant upgrades or remain fourth-best.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“I think, in general, we’re still the fourth-fastest team,” Verstappen told select media, including RacingNews365.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“That’s not really going to change at any of the upcoming tracks unless, of course, you bring performance.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“We’re not going to solve it just by changing the set-up. So, yeah, that’s what we’ll look at.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Ferrari’s latest major upgrade package in Barcelona further increased its advantage over Red Bull, while McLaren also appears to be a step ahead of the Austrian outfit.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Milton Keynes-based team is at risk of falling well adrift of the leading teams, with Verstappen recognising that this is a season in which upgrades are essential.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Asked if Red Bull is losing touch with the top three outfits, Verstappen replied: “That’s the season.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Whoever brings upgrades will make a jump; it just depends on who is always bringing the biggest one, or the biggest improvement.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has delivered a bleak assessment of Red Bull’s prospects, insisting its position as the fourth-fastest team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-740949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}