Max Verstappen makes big McLaren admission with stinging F1 pecking order verdict

Max Verstappen has admitted it is “quite clear” that McLaren were “the best” team as the first half of the F1 2024 season drew to a close.

Having produced the most dominant season in history last year, winning 21 of a possible 22 races as Verstappen eased to a third consecutive World Championship, Red Bull had been hotly tipped to crush the opposition once again in F1 2024.

Max Verstappen concedes ‘quite clear’ McLaren edge over Red Bull

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Yet despite starting the season with four wins from the first five races, Red Bull and Verstappen have been restricted to just three victories in the last nine rounds in the face of a renewed threat from the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.

McLaren has emerged as Red Bull’s most consistent challenger, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri claiming their maiden F1 victories in Miami and Hungary respectively since May.

With Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez struggling to score consistent points, Red Bull’s lead over McLaren in the Constructors’ standings has been reduced to 42 points with 10 races remaining.

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Verstappen acknowledged that McLaren has wrestled the initiative in recent races – and urged Red Bull to respond in the second half of the season.

He told media including PlanetF1.com: “I think if you look at the last five, six races, they for sure have been the best. Quite clear.

“That’s fine. Fair play to them. I think they have done a great job.

“From our side, we have a bit of work to do, a few things also to analyse over the break. From race one all the way to here, what we have done.

“And then try to fight back from Zandvoort, see if we can actually improve the situation, try to turn it around, try to be more competitive.

“I think the battle is in a way still quite tight, so when you make small mistakes it definitely can swing quite quickly.

“We have to try to use that to our advantage as well, because it’s so difficult at the moment, but we’ll see.

“There are so many races left and so many things that can happen.

“You can have the best possible preparation into every single weekend, but even then things can catch you by surprise. So you just have to remain focused, calm and try to improve.”

Despite failing to finish higher than seventh since the Miami GP in early May, Red Bull confirmed last week that Perez will remain as Verstappen’s team-mate after the summer break.

Perez agreed with Verstappen’s assessment of the state of play at the front of the field, claiming Red Bull have been “a little bit lost” in recent months.

He added: “I think they’ve been the best car for the last five races or so in different types of circuits.

“They’ve been strong, certainly in the race pace, and I think the break comes at a good time for Red Bull because we’ve got a lot to analyse on our season, the directions we’ve been taking and hopefully get the balance a little bit more together for the second half of the season.

“More than any other upgrade, I think getting the balance in the right window will be the main key and the main focus to see what we’ve done, the upgrades we have brought to see where exactly we are, because I feel like we’ve been a little bit lost lately.”

Verstappen and Perez’s comments come after Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache admitted the team pushed the limits “maybe too much” by pursuing a new concept with the RB20 car for F1 2024.

Ina an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com (below), Wache said: “I think we pushed the boundary a little bit high and, in some areas, maybe too much, and that has created some characteristics that are not designed for the driver.

“The success is coming, not by yourself, it is also coming by the relative performance to the others. Last year, we were fortunate that the others didn’t do as good a job as they have done this year, I think that is also an aspect we have to take into account.

“RB20 is a better car than RB19 – however, maybe we could do a better job and that’s what we are trying to fix for the end of the season and for next year, to give the driver a better tool to be able to fight.”

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