07/08/2025 15:36
Max Verstappen does not believe it is a "surprise" that he has
failed to score a podium finish in the past four rounds of the F1
season The Red Bull driver has not reached the rostrum since the
Canadian Grand Prix, his longest run without a top-three finish
since 2019, when he twice went three rounds without a trophy.
Having finished a lowly ninth in the recent Hungarian Grand Prix,
the four-time F1 drivers' champion insisted that, given the
difficulties the Milton Keynes squad is experiencing with the RB21,
such a run of form is to be expected. The situation was
particularly painful at the Hungaroring, where Red Bull's usually
trusty Friday night turnaround failed to salvage its weekend. It
has left the Dutchman 97 points adrift of Oscar Piastri in the
drivers' championship standings, with Helmut Marko now joining the
27-year-old in conceding his title aspirations are done for the
year. "It's not a surprise, of course, if we look at the problems
that we are having," Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365
. "I think at the other end [of the spectrum], for like, four
years, I've had really a lot of good results, also. "So, it comes
and goes, success." What was the issue in Hungary? Breaking down
where the RB21 was struggling in Hungary, Verstappen maintained
that strategy would not have alleviated any of his
underperformance, in a race in which he finished lower than his
eighth-place starting position. "The whole weekend, we were just
really slow," the 65-time grand prix winner explained. "We just
struggled a lot for grip and low speed, medium speed, and, yeah,
that was also the problem in the race. "Whatever we would have
done, staying out long, doing what we did, I think we would have
been struggling anyway."
