Max Verstappen doubles down on Red Bull pace concerns: “We are not the quickest”

Max Verstappen reiterated that Red Bull “are not the quickest” heading into the 2025 F1 season.

Verstappen comes into the new F1 season as the defending champion.

If Verstappen takes this year’s title, he will equal Michael Schumacher’s F1 record of five consecutive championships.

However, the Dutchman doesn’t appear to be the favourite at this stage, with Lando Norris the bookmakers’ favourite heading into the first race in Australia this weekend.

McLaren showed outstanding pace throughout testing, especially during Norris’ race run on day two.

Verstappen could not complete a full race simulation on the final day as Red Bull focused on improving the handling of the RB21.

Speaking on Thursday at the FIA press conference in Melbourne, Verstappen reiterated his view that Red Bull won’t be the team to beat at the start of 2025.

“What kind of shape? Positive shape, I guess. I guess we will find out more this weekend and after,” Verstappen said. “We will try to do our best. There’s not really much we can do. I think there wasn’t many days. We found that there are already a few areas that we can work on, so we will continue to do so.

“I know that we are not the quickest at the moment. Again, it’s a very long season. If you would have asked that question here last year and at the end of the season again it looked completely different. A lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula 1.”

Verstappen unsure Red Bull issues are “fully fixed”

Even though Verstappen won last year’s title, it was far from plain sailing for the Dutchman.

After winning seven of the opening 10 races, Verstappen won just two of the following 14.

Red Bull struggled with their in-season car development as the RB20 became incredibly difficult to drive.

While Red Bull were able to make minor improvements by the end of the year, they were often behind McLaren and Ferrari on raw pace.

Verstappen remains unsure whether the handling issues from last year are completely fixed.

“We will try our best to make it as competitive as possible because it’s the final year of the regulations. I guess up until a certain point. I don’t know where that is.

“You focus on this year and naturally you focus on a whole different thing. We will make it more driveable. Bahrain is very different from what we get here. It’s a bit difficult to say if things have been fully fixed or not.

“I guess we have to be patient and see how much we can regain.