Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has vowed to “focus on turning things around” for 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen endured a difficult weekend at the Italian GP in Monza, Italy, after he topped FP1, only to struggle for “balance” across FP2 and FP3 which continued into Qualifying as he only achieved seventh on the grid.
The three-time champion consequently went for the alternate starting strategy of hard tyres for the race start, which saw him briefly lead but tyre degradation ultimately saw him finish sixth on a two-stopper.
His title lead consequently was trimmed to 62 points by McLaren’s Lando Norris with eight Grands Prix and three Sprints left across the final eight rounds.
Verstappen nevertheless viewed his sixth-placed finish as “damage limitation to “a tricky weekend”, where he believed that he “got the most” that he could in the race whilst running down on power.
The 26 year-old and Red Bull must now turn their focus to the final European race of the season, which sees F1 head to Baku, Azerbaijan from 13-15 September.
Verstappen though iterated that Red Bull must knuckle down and focus on resolving their issues, otherwise they could risk going seven races without a victory for the first time since a 11-race streak in 2020.
Reflecting on how Red Bull can get back into contention for victories, Verstappen admitted that they need to focus on reviewing data and fixing various issues.
“There is a lot to analyse from this weekend. This is just how racing goes sometimes, we need to put our heads down and work as hard as we can to get back to where we want to be.
“I’ve given a lot of feedback on the car, so in the next two weeks before Baku we need to focus on turning things around and fixing some of the issues we’ve identified over the past few weekends.”
Team Principal, Christian Horner echoed Verstappen’s sentiments as he added that their form is an issue, especially in terms of car balance.
“Obviously, our performance is a concern right now and the whole Team is working very hard on it. It looks like a balance problem and there needs to be a fix for it, so the Team are working incredibly hard back at the factory to get on top of it.
“If nothing else, this weekend has really shown where some of our weaknesses are.”