Max Verstappen: Red Bull ‘thrown away two races’ with rear wing choice

Max Verstappen says Red Bull have ‘thrown away two race weekends’ with their decision not to bring a low-drag rear wing to the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Verstappen qualified fifth for Sunday’s grand prix, one place ahead of his title rival Lando Norris. As long as the Dutchman does not lose more than two points to the McLaren driver, he will be crowned world champion for the fourth time. Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was knocked out in Q1 in 16th place. 

But Verstappen’s focus after qualifying was Red Bull’s straight-line performance deficit compared to their rivals, due to the team not having a specific low-drag rear wing suited to high-speed tracks like Las Vegas and Monza.

“We opted to not make [a low drag rear wing],” Verstappen told media including Motorsport Week in Las Vegas.

“We don’t have one. So this is already from 2022. I think we just never thought that we would run it that low. And then with the budget cap, you choose your priorities and we shifted that.

“Would I have liked to have a lower downforce wing? Yeah, for sure. Or at least a different shape. A more efficient shape.

“But it’s something that we’ll look at. But on the other hand, there’s only one more year left with these rules.

“And I don’t know if it makes sense. But for me at least, it feels a bit like we throw away two race weekends like this because you definitely lose too much on the straights.”

Asked where he felt he was losing time, Verstappen explained: “In the corners and on the straights. We know that with our wing naturally you lose top speed, especially with the DRS open. It's a bit of a handicap.

“We knew that and that's something that we have to deal with on a track like this track, like Monza. But also besides that, I always felt like the tyres were a bit of a struggle for us to get them in the right operating window.

“I do think that we did the best we could in qualifying with what we had, and then P5 is the result. We got a bit lucky because with Lewis not putting a lap in, otherwise it would have been P6. I think we really maximised what we could.”