Toro Rosso’s target of securing fifth place in the championship standings come the end of the season might not be possible because of the Renault engine, according to Max Verstappen.
The Dutch driver has failed to finish three of the four races this season so far because of engine related troubles. It’s no different for sister team Red Bull which has seen Daniel Ricciardo go through three engines already.
Verstappen has no doubt that the car is capable of fifth in the standings – they currently sit joint-sixth with Lotus, just seven points adrift of fifth – but that could all be jeopardised by Renault.
“I think the car is capable of [fifth], it is just the thing behind the car which is a bit of a nightmare,” the 17-year-old told Autosport.
“I’m not going to lie about that, I think everybody can see that,” he added. “You could see that with [Daniel] Ricciardo, he made some fireworks at the finish [in Bahrain].”
Verstappen also suffered troubles in Bahrain when he was forced to run with reduced power due to a suspected electrical problem, which made progress from 15th on the grid difficult.
He later retired on lap 34 in fear of losing another power unit.
“The whole race I was already having problems with the engine,” he explained. “I was losing a lot of power on the straights. It was just a mess. I was like a sitting duck to everyone.”
