Max Verstappen issues firm Red Bull F1 title hopes warning

Max Verstappen has warned his Red Bull Formula 1 team “I won’t be champion next year” if its 2024 struggles continue.

Having dominated the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Verstappen and Red Bull looked well on course for a repeat this year after winning seven of the first 10 grands prix.

But between winning the Spanish GP in June and registering his eighth victory of the campaign in Brazil in November, Verstappen visited the podium just four times.

Red Bull’s form dip with its RB20 opened the door for McLaren’s Lando Norris to pile the pressure on Verstappen mid-season in the championship battle.

While Verstappen’s strong start to 2024 ultimately allowed him to win a fourth F1 crown, he has warned his team that a repeat next year will not be possible.

“If we continue like this, I won't be champion next year,” he told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

“It's as simple as that. We really need to make steps to be competitive next season. We all know that.

“I trust the team that they can fix the balance issues from last season. Certain things that we couldn't adjust last year will be changed for next year.

“We know that we need to be better over the kerbs, bumps and in the slow corners.

“Those are generally our weaknesses. If we are still beaten then, it will be based on pure speed.

“I always keep the pressure on, also on myself. I try not to think too lightly about things. At one point the car was barely driveable. There was no more to get out of it than this.”

From the Singapore GP - a typically weak venue for Verstappen in recent year - Red Bull’s form rebounded.

Verstappen was second in Singapore, third in Texas and won the Sao Paulo and Qatar GPs.

He revealed that this was down to his inputs in car development being heeded by Red Bull, with the team scrapping planned upgrades for after the Italian GP as a result.

“All plans for new parts, which were to come after that [race in Monza], could be thrown into the bin,” Verstappen added.

“The team actually started from scratch after that. Before that, they couldn't find the exact problem.

“I saw a couple of graphics when we were looking at the data. I saw certain aerodynamic shifts in how we entered the corners, turned into corners and also in terms of ride heights.

“It was different from last year's car. I said, ‘Hey, it's very clear that this and this is the problem, isn't it?’ That turned out to be right, I heard later on.

“I hadn't seen those lines and those graphics before. I then said that it was quite clear what we had to work on, because the engineers obviously know exactly what had been changed from last year's car.

“At the beginning of last season we were still winning our races convincingly, but I felt even then that the balance of the car did not feel the way I wanted it to.

“But, back then, we still had a big lead over the other teams, who might not have had a very good winter.”