“I Don’t Think We Can Compete for the Win in Melbourne”: Max Verstappen Rules Out Red Bull From Early Championship Contention

Red Bull admitted that their pre-season testing in Bahrain did not go according to plan and that they have issues to address. Max Verstappen was already quite unhappy with the downward trajectory of his team in the second half of last year.

He had already prophesized before the start of this season that if Red Bull did not address their pressing concerns, he won’t be able to defend his title. After doing 81 laps in Bahrain, followed by countless simulator runs, Verstappen came to realize and said,

“I don’t think we can compete for the win in Melbourne”.

“If you look at the lap times, I think McLaren is the favorite. Not everything went completely smoothly for us, but on the other hand, we do have some ideas about how we can improve ourselves,” he added.

While he is not hopeful about the first round of the 2025 season, he is still optimistic and hopes his team can make some improvements after a few races.

max talking about the 2025 season

“im looking forward to see how competitive we are. last year has been challenging at times, i hope we can be a little more stable (in 2025).” pic.twitter.com/LQh0Tb8QSZ

— nat (@616VERSTAPPEN) February 11, 2025

While Red Bull may not show massive promise, one pundit has full faith in the ability of Verstappen. In contrast to what the Dutchman feels, Martin Brundle recently claimed that Verstappen would start the season as the favorite.

Too much faith in Verstappen

Who can blame Brundle for his optimism? When the Milton Keynes-based team conspicuously struggled in 2024, Verstappen overperformed and sealed the drivers’ championship despite Ferrari and McLaren having a much better package.

However, at that time, Verstappen had a gigantic lead when the two vintage F1 teams emerged as the supreme forces on the grid. But this time, Red Bull is unlikely to deliver a similar arsenal to Verstappen to extract a significant advantage.

It could be argued that within the next two weeks, Red Bull could make some developments before Melbourne that can make the RB21 better. This argument has been accepted by Verstappen, but he counters, “

I do think that everything can be set up a bit more optimally in Melbourne than in Bahrain, but as I said, I think we still have some things to improve.”

Now, it’s on Red Bull’s engineering team to deliver those improvements as soon as possible. Or they could simply sacrifice this season and focus on 2026 when the regulations change.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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