Max Verstappen expressed his concerns about Red Bull Racing's future after a disappointing performance at the Italian Grand Prix.
Following the race at Monza, where he finished sixth, Verstappen acknowledged that the team might struggle to secure any more wins this season.
The race took a turn for Verstappen on Lap 21 when he faced understeer issues that nearly caused him to crash.
Although he briefly led the race during Carlos Sainz's pit stop, his own pit stop on Lap 23 was problematic, taking 6.2 seconds due to a faulty rear tire. This delay cost him valuable positions on the track.
As the race progressed, Verstappen lost ground to Lando Norris on Lap 41 and opted for another pit stop on Lap 42, which ultimately sealed his sixth-place finish.
In his post-race analysis, Verstappen was critical of both his performance and the team's strategy.
He didn't hold back, calling his performance "absolutely crap."
"It was just another dramatic race. Nothing was running, the car was not running at all," he lamented . "I didn't like the strategy at all, and the pit stop was absolutely crap. We had to drive with less power, so basically everything went wrong."
He pointed out that the two-stop strategy employed during the race was ineffective compared to competitors who managed to execute one-stop strategies more efficiently.
"Where we drove didn't matter anyway. But you still try to drive your best race, but with our two-stoppers that was definitely not the case. On both hard and medium tyres we were too slow," Verstappen added.
Looking ahead, Verstappen's outlook is bleak. He indicated that without significant changes to the car, the team may continue to struggle for the remainder of the season.
"The way things are going, we are not going to win any more races, but it is what it is," he concluded.
Despite this setback, he still maintains a comfortable lead in the overall standings, but the recent results suggest that Red Bull Racing has work to do to regain its competitive edge.
Talking on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, Verstappen continued in his disappointment:
"I thought we got the most out of the car in terms of position but not in the way we approached the race.
"The pace was not strong enough so we had to do our own race and had a bad pit stop.
"I think strategy-wise we didn't optimise it. Some cars did a one-stop and we did a two-stop which was not the best.
"For most of the race we couldn't run full engine power because of a problem so that doesn't help. All in all a bad race.
"It would still have been a bad race with full engine power but we may have been more competitive. We were in no man's land."If we don't change anything on the car it is all going to be bad from now on to the end of the season. We have a lot of work to do."
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