F1

We don’t need to panic – Max Verstappen calm as winless run continues

The world champion admitted it had been a “bad weekend” for Red Bull at Zandvoort.

Max Verstappen said he does not need to panic after Lando Norris’ win in the Netherlands (Peter Dejong/AP)
Max Verstappen said he does not need to panic after Lando Norris’ win in the Netherlands (Peter Dejong/AP) (Peter Dejong/AP)
By Philip Duncan, PA F1 Correspondent, Zandvoort

Max Verstappen insisted it was not time to press the panic button after Lando Norris’ statement win at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Norris took the chequered flag 22 seconds clear of Verstappen as the Red Bull driver’s losing streak was extended to five races.

The McLaren man now has the quickest car in Formula One underneath him, and he will head to next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix confident of building on his crushing win in Zandvoort.

However, Verstappen, who heads Norris by 70 points in the standings with nine rounds remaining, said: “The last few races have not been fantastic, and in a sense, that has been alarming in itself, but we don’t need to panic.

“Something has being going wrong with the car that we need to understand and quickly improve. We are not quick enough and we know we have quite a bit of work to do.

“This weekend was a bad weekend in general, and we need to understand why that has been the case. We need to improve the situation and that is what we are working on, but Formula One is very complicated.”

Many expected Verstappen to waltz to his fourth consecutive world title but Red Bull’s dominance has diminished.

Verstappen’s victory in Spain on June 23 marked the Red Bull driver’s seventh from the opening 10 rounds but he has not won a race since.

The 26-year-old continued: “That happens, right? I have had a lot of good years and some drivers have never won a race so you could look at it that way, too.

“We are working on the issues and that is the only thing I can say. There are a lot of races left, but this weekend was not our best weekend.”