Max Verstappen has admitted that variable competitiveness among the leading sides in Formula 1 is helping him to consolidate his current championship advantage.
Red Bull’s past dominance across the ground effect era has been halted over recent months as the pack has converged to create five winners in the last seven events.
But while McLaren has eradicated Red Bull’s lead to 42 points amid Sergio Perez’s current woes, Verstappen boasts a huge 78-point gap going into the summer break.
Lando Norris has become Verstappen’s closest challenger, but the Briton has bemoaned squandering several opportunities to add to his maiden F1 success in Miami.
The McLaren driver was unable to capitalise on Verstappen incurring a 10-place grid drop in Belgium as an error at Turn 1 contributed to him ending one place behind.
Mercedes has emerged as the most consistent team with three victories in four rounds, but the German marque’s sluggish start means that it is not in title contention.
“I think it shifts a little bit,” Verstappen said. “For sure, constantly McLaren has been really quick. Mercedes has been quick, but not everywhere.
“And from our side, yeah, we have a bit of work to do, we know that. We have a few things to analyse as well, what to do with the car for the remainder of the season.
“But on the other hand, of course, having an engine penalty, I think if all of the cars had that, their race would also look very different, you know.
“So it’s not very fair to fully, of course, look at my race [Verstappen finished fourth] coming from P11, because if you just start with them, the race is very different.”
Nevertheless, Verstappen is adamant that the championship is not a done deal on his side and has called on Red Bull to return to the levels it was hitting last season.
“It’s never comfortable,” he added. “There’s always things that can go wrong or can happen to you. So every weekend you need to be in top form.”
However, the three-time F1 champion has conceded that it has been a boost to his title chances that rival outfits have been unable to be consistent with their results.
“I prefer to have it like that than one team, of course, suddenly dominating every single race,” he proclaimed.
Verstappen is certain the shutdown is coming at an ideal time, having not won across the past four races as Red Bull’s performance has regressed relative to the rest.
“I think there’s things that maybe we can do different or analyse the things that we’ve brought to the car,” he explained. “And we’ll analyse all of that now over the break.”
Pressed on the things that the team might be looking at, Verstappen suggested that Red Bull must check whether its upgrades in Budapest have worked as intended.
“Just things that we have brought to the car and stuff,” he added. “Yeah, just checking up on everything.”
