Max Verstappen has admitted that Red Bull need to “change the whole car” if he is to return to winning ways, as he revealed he was battling an engine issue throughout a disappointing Italian Grand Prix.
After a poor qualifying session saw him start the Italian Grand Prix from seventh on the grid, the Dutchman could only manage to improve one position over the course of the 53-lap race, finishing a whopping 37.9s behind race winner Leclerc.
Red Bull were unable to match the pace of their fellow top teams and carried out a two-stop strategy that did not contribute to boosting their result on a day when one-stopper Charles Leclerc triumphed in front of the Ferrari faithful.
To add to Red Bull’s troubles, Verstappen revealed that he had been suffered from an engine issue that played a part in him finishing a distant sixth.
Speaking after the race, he said: ”To be honest I wasn’t really frustrated throughout the race, I was just doing my own race. The pace was not there, we had a bad pit stop, I think our strategy was not on point today even though it wouldn’t have changed our position. I think we could have done a better race in general.
“It doesn’t help that you can’t run full power for most of the race with the engine because we had an issue. So yeah, all in all a pretty bad race. [The engine issue] is really bad at the moment and, before Baku, we have a lot of work to do to basically change the whole car.”
The underwhelming result, coupled with Sergio Perez’s P8 finish, has allowed McLaren to close down the constructors’ deficit to the Milton Keynes outfit to just eight points with eight races still to go.
Verstappen’s winless streak has now extended to the last six events, leading him to tell Sky Sports F1 that “if we don’t change anything on the car, it’s all going to be bad from now onwards to the end of the season, so we have a lot of work to do”.
“It would still have been a bad race [without the engine issues], but at least maybe you are a bit more competitive,” he added. “We were in no man’s land basically doing our own race.
“It’s part of racing unfortunately. It’s not what I want but we know that this exists as well. We are pushing hard now.”
