Max Verstappen’s ‘now it’s our turn’ warning after F1 dominance comes to sudden halt

While Red Bull’s dominance appears to be at an end, Max Verstappen says this only serves as hunger to fuel a harder push.

Red Bull headed into the summer break without a win in the last four races, the longest winless streak for the Milton Keynes-based squad since 2020. With McLaren and Mercedes coming on song, the dominance of last year’s RB19 has become a distant memory.

Max Verstappen: It’s clear we have a hard time everywhere

While Verstappen’s driving is keeping Red Bull in the fight for the championships as McLaren’s MCL38 now appears to be the most versatile and, perhaps, the quickest car on the grid in 2024, the situation is in stark contrast to last season and even the early stages of this year.

After the first handful of races, Verstappen enjoyed a large lead as the RB20 hit the ground running but upgrades have brought the likes of Mercedes and McLaren to a level of competitiveness that has even left Red Bull lagging – particularly over race distances.

With the team’s dominance at an end, the pressure will thus escalate on Verstappen in the second half of the championship as he aims to bring home the title against drivers equipped with apparently faster cars, and the Dutch driver admitted there’s not likely to be many easy weekends for the rest of the year.

“In the beginning, we could really say that it was track-specific, but I think it’s clear now that no matter what track we go to, we have a hard time everywhere,” he told the Hungarian publication Formula.hu .

“I would say that we have not been the fastest in the last few races. Yes, it’s a bit harder now. The others are doing a good job of improving the performance of the car, but of course, we have to point out that we are still leading the constructors’ standings.

“It’s not that bad, but we have to try to improve the performance of the car so that we can try to fight back and set the pace again.”

While leading the championship, the fact success is now starting to elude Red Bull on track has positioned the world champions as the ones aiming to improve further, says Verstappen, who was matter-of-fact about how the fate of the titles is now in the team’s hands.

“The downturn in performance should be as much an incentive as the pursuit of success,” he said.

“Well, you can always say that, but I never liked to think that way myself. Because I think when you’re the winning team, you have to push even harder, even harder. That should be the mentality, but that’s the way it goes.

“The people who are chasing you, have the hunger to win and the desire to try to beat you. And they’ve been doing a good job of it lately, so it’s up to us to respond.”

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But while Verstappen’s jaw-dropping dominance of 2023 may have come to an end, there is an upside for the Dutch driver – namely, that he now gets to enjoy wheel-to-wheel racing against his rivals again, rather than sprinting off into the distance.

“I really enjoyed last year, but I knew we would never have another season like the one we had,” he explained.

“I mean, I thought it was unrealistic to be that competitive again, so I was prepared for it. Of course, I was hoping and hoping that we would have a bit more of a lead, but that’s the way it is.

“I’ve been fighting quite a lot with other drivers on the track lately, but obviously, I know who has a personal driving style.

“It’s like that in all sports, isn’t it? Not everyone is the same, but that’s the way it is. I’ve grown up with a lot of drivers and it’s fun to battle with people my own age that I know from my go-karting days.”

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