Max Verstappen remains “confident” that Red Bull will win races again this season, despite conceding the team “took the wrong direction” with its 2024 Formula 1 car.
Verstappen seemed destined to cruise to a fourth successive Drivers’ Championship when he drove the RB20 to seven victories in the opening 10 rounds this season.
However, the Dutchman hasn’t won in the eight races since as Red Bull has experienced balance problems which McLaren has capitalised on to usurp the champions.
Red Bull’s struggles reached a crisis point at Monza when Verstappen lamented that the side had turned a dominant package into a “monster” as he laboured to sixth.
Verstappen, who has a 52-point lead over McLaren’s Lando Norris, has revealed that Red Bull’s vast upgrades in Hungary contributed to the issues it has encountered.
“Let’s say we took the wrong direction with the car,” Verstappen told Sky Italia.
“Now we are trying to correct it but it takes time, you can’t just flip a switch and fix everything.”
Verstappen backs Red Bull to recover
Red Bull has shown signs it is back on the right track, however, as Sergio Perez had podium-contending speed in Baku, with Verstappen taking second in Singapore.
With the team utilising the autumn break to prepare new updates, Verstappen is optimistic Red Bull can be in contention to attain victories in the remaining six events.
“We are working on it, then we also had bad luck in some episodes in the last races, some unfortunate decisions that compromised the final result,” he continued.
“But I know we can do better.
“Obviously I don’t expect it to go like last year, where we dominated the whole season, but I feel confident that we can get back to fighting for the win very soon.”
Red Bull didn’t expect dominance to continue
Verstappen has revealed that he expected Red Bull to face intense competition in 2024 even when it retained its huge advantage from last term in the initial rounds.
“Obviously it started out pretty well, it was just a continuation of last year,” the reigning F1 champion added.
“But I always prepare myself not to have excessive expectations.
“The start was good, but I never thought it would be the same as last year. I knew things would change sooner or later and they did it quite drastically.
“It’s time to keep calm and work together with the team to do a better job.”
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