Max Verstappen: Both F1 titles “not realistic” | Need to turn Red Bull ‘upside down’

Max Verstappen believes that both F1 world championships are “not realistic” with Red Bull’s “undriveable” car which he says has turned into a “monster”.

After qualifying a disappointing seventh, Verstappen could only finish sixth in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza as he saw his championship lead cut down to 62 points with eight races remaining after McLaren’s Lando Norris finished third with the fastest lap of the race.

Red Bull’s lead over McLaren in the constructors’ championship has also been whittled down to just eight points.

“At the moment both championships are not realistic,” Verstappen said.

“I’ve said a lot and now it’s up to the team to come with lot of changes with the car because we basically went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car in the space of six to eight months. So that is very weird, for me, and yeah, need to really turn the car upside down.

“It doesn’t matter with where we are at the moment, we are bad everywhere, so we need a lot of changes.”

Verstappen stressed Red Bull need to “turn around” their RB20 after going from having the most dominant car in F1 history to what he described as being a “monster”.

“Last year we had a great car, which was the most dominant car ever, and we basically turned it into a monster. So we have to turn it around.

“It doesn’t matter how many weeks, we have to just keep pushing and work flat out. There’s no excuse.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner conceded his side “have to turn the situation around very quickly” to avoid coming under “massive pressure” in both championships.

"With the pace we had today both championships absolutely will be under pressure,” Horner said.

“We have to turn the situation around very quickly. I think this circuit has exposed the deficiencies we have in the car versus last year, and I think that we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend.

“We know we have to get on top of and address, otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure.”