Max Verstappen admitted to being unsettled by Red Bull’s lack of competitiveness after finding himself locked in a race-long duel with the junior Racing Bulls outfit at his home Dutch Grand Prix.
Although Verstappen finished second at Zandvoort behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and ahead of RB driver Isack Hadjar in third, the result was flattered by Lando Norris’ late retirement. The real story, according to the Dutchman, was Red Bull’s lack of race pace, which left him fighting a car that should have been a step behind.
Having arrived in Monza, the world champion discussed the previous weekend in the Netherlands with Viaplay. “Of course, happy to be on the podium, but in terms of speed it wasn’t good,” said Max. “I think it was purely down to qualifying that I was third in the race, because in terms of speed it really wasn’t there.”
Despite running his final stint on low fuel and the soft tyre, Verstapen’s best lap remained more than half a second slower than the benchmark set by Piastri. “McLaren is on another level,” he claimed. “I don’t even compare myself with that.”
Verstappen mugged Lando Norris at the start of the race, as he was pinned to the inside by his Australian team mate. Entering the iconic banked turn three, Max made an attempt to pass the McLaren driver on the unforgiving low side. His RB21 lost traction due to sand on the track, but somehow he slithered his way through the corner ending up ahead of Norris.
Yet the remainder of his race was ‘battling’ Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar who had qualified in a remarkable fourth place. The rookie driver never left the world champion out of his sight apparently keeping up with the Red Bull with consummate ease.
“The whole race we were basically fighting with our sister team based on pure pace,” Verstappen noted. “That shouldn’t be happening. That’s just not good. But in a way, we know that those problems are there in our car.” The RB21 is known in the paddock to be notoriously difficult in finding its optimal operating window and on the harder compounds this exacerbates the handling characteristics of there car. “Absolutely no mechanical grip,” Max revealed. “But everyone else can drive on that tyre, except us. So that also means that something is just wrong. That’s why I used the soft and medium, those tyres give a bit more mechanical grip in slow corners, where we were struggling a lot.”
Verstappen was constantly forced into compromises during the Grand Prix. “The car is just not fast enough. I also had to save a lot in those fast corners. While everyone goes through Turns 7 and 8 much faster, I have no grip. That’s obviously not good. Of course, in qualifying it was better over one lap, but this season the car is just not good in the race.”
With Yuki Tsunoda only scoring 12 points this season, Red Bull are compromised in the constructor’s title race and in their worst position since 2015. Meanwhile the Racing Bulls are having their best year since 2021 and now with 60 points on the board they are just 2 behind Aston Martin who are currently sixth.
This is the kind of progress Verstappen hoped Red Bull would make after finishing 2024 poorly, but with hopes of the title lost there are suggesting Red Bull and their sister team carry out an experiment.
Red Bull’s struggles at Zandvoort, combined with Racing Bulls’ unexpected pace, have sparked a tongue-in-cheek theory that Max Verstappen should simply switch into the junior team’s car if he wants to keep his championship hopes alive. On a more serious note an FP1 practice session is not out of the question.
Zandvoort loss revives F1 calendar debate
Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer laughed off the idea. “I guess we’re joking about it, like everyone else,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we’re two teams that operate differently, and it’s not really an issue. It’s more of a running joke for everyone, but it’s like flying to the moon – it’s just not something that’s going to happen.”
Team boss Alan Permane was equally dismissive when asked if Verstappen might at least try the car in practice. “Someone asked me about it this weekend,” he explained. “Whether Max will be with us in FP1. Of course not. We’re focused on getting the most out of our car, just as Red Bull is focused on getting the most out of theirs.”
With rookie Isack Hadjar at times within the DRS of Verstappen in the recent Dutch Grand Prix, paddock speculation suggested he had been told to hold station behind the senior team’s driver. Yet Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies shut down any notion of this being true stating: “If he was not allowed to try to overtake Verstappen, it would be a violation of the regulations. So the answer is yes, of course, Hadjar is allowed to attack the Red Bull cars.”
That Racing Bulls are being asked whether Verstappen might drive for them says everything about the strange new world of Formula One 2025. Four years ago the idea would have been unthinkable. Now it is at least funny enough to be a running joke in the paddock. “Like flying to the moon,” Bayer quipped — though in F1, stranger things have happened.
Permane’s brusque dismissal – “of course not” – suggests the team isn’t even entertaining the fantasy. But the fact it was asked at all highlights how blurred the lines have become between the senior and junior outfits. If Hadjar is finishing seconds behind Verstappen at Zandvoort, then Racing Bulls are no longer the back marker satellite, but an irritant nipping at the heels of the parent team.
Mekies’ comment is perhaps the most telling: “Hadjar is allowed to attack the Red Bull cars.” Translation: if the rookie had the chance to pass Verstappen, there would be no team orders to stop him. Imagine the optics if a Racing Bull overtook a Red Bull on merit. The joke about Verstappen swapping cars would suddenly feel a little less like comedy and a little more like prophecy.
Senior Ferrari engineer leaves Hamilton’s corner
Formula One team Ferrari may be facing a significant shake-up in its technical structure, with Italian daily Corriere dello Sport reporting that veteran performance engineer Jock Clear is poised to leave the Scuderia by the end of the 2025 season.
Clear, 61, has been with Ferrari since 2014 and currently serves as chief performance engineer, as well as a driver coach to Charles Leclerc. He also plays a pivotal role in the Ferrari Driver Academy, where he has overseen the development of talents such as Oliver Bearman and Dino Beganovic.
If the report proves accurate, his departure would mark the end of over a decade of service in Maranello, leaving a notable void as Ferrari continues to fight Mercedes for second place in the Constructors’ Championship. Moreover lewis Hamilton would be losing an ally who since the driver’s arrival in Maranello, has stood firmly in his corner…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
