Max Verstappen’s nightmarish run this season continued during the 2024 Italian GP as well. The Dutchman started the race from seventh but could not make any impression at the front of the field. He finished the race in sixth place — visibly frustrated with how the entire Grand Prix had panned out for him.
During the last moments of the race, with George Russell in hot pursuit, Verstappen came onto the team radio comms to say, “Can people in the background please be awake, it’s important.” He did sound frustrated with the situation and when asked after the race he explained why.
Verstappen was asked by the pit wall to shift to a slower setting after his fight with Lando Norris. However, the team did not tell him to revert back to the default settings on his dash until he asked them about it. This did not go down well with the three-time champion.
After the race, he told Viaplay, “At some point they have to tell me when I can go back to the quicker setting. I ask: ”Can I go back?”, ”Oh yeah, yeah you can.” Then I thought ”You guys have all the data the entire time, you guys can exactly see when I can make those steps. I shouldn’t have to ask when I can go back.”
viaplay: ”at some point you say: ”can people in the background please be awake, it’s important?” what did you mean?”
max: ”in the race my battery was relatively empty, while fighting lando of course. then i had to go to a certain setting. at some point they have to tell me… pic.twitter.com/ELWHxd1K8T
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) September 1, 2024
He added, “We might be in nobody’s land, but you still have to be on top of things. Otherwise I can just stay home.” Verstappen’s assessment of the RB20 being in no man’s land is pretty accurate given how much he has struggled this weekend. The car seems to have no balance, and the handling is a constant mix between understeer and oversteer.
Verstappen predicts a grim second-half of the season for Red Bull
After the race, Verstappen also revealed a fault in his power unit also compromised his race. That said, the Dutchman is aware that Red Bull has fallen down the pecking order — behind the likes of McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes.
Max: “At the moment, both championships are not realistic.” pic.twitter.com/4lk17isKvn
— Verstappen News (@verstappenews) September 1, 2024
He explained (as quoted by Sky Sports F1), “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.”
Verstappen’s performances in the last six races highlight the same with only two podium finishes and no wins. This has been the Dutchman’s longest streak of not winning races since the 2020 season and quite contrasting to his dominant campaigns in 2022 and 2023.
Going into the last eight races of the season, Verstappen believes that retaining his drivers’ title and the constructors’ title is no longer a realistic possibility.
