Max Verstappen shares worrying assessment of Red Bull’s ‘main problem’ at the Dutch Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen heads into his home race at the Dutch Grand Prix without a realistic chance of victory for the first time ever.

Between 2021 and 2023, he claimed victory every time before finishing second behind Lando Norris last year. On this occasion, Red Bull’s car simply isn’t quick enough.

It means that Verstappen faces an uphill battle to put on a show for his loyal fans, but may be boosted by the arrival of rain.

The Dutch Grand Prix weather forecast has looked bleak all week, and a sprinkling of water feels like the best chance of disrupting McLaren’s momentum.

F1 fans told Verstappen to ‘relax’ after an unfortunate off-track excursion following FP1 in Zandvoort, which left his car beached in the gravel.

Already, it looks like Verstappen’s hopes of breaking two records are slim, with the need for a mega turnaround on Saturday.

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Max Verstappen says Red Bull’s ‘main problem’ is understeer at the Dutch Grand Prix

Verstappen’s relationship with Laurent Mekies must get ‘better’ if the two want to help bring success back to the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

The new team principal has little time to make changes before the 2026 F1 regulations, when his team will be expected to be back on track for titles again.

This year is a bit of a write-off for them, with Verstappen admitting in Zandvoort that the ‘main problem’ they face with the RB21 is understeer after two practice sessions.

“I mean nothing special really,” he told Sky Sports F1 after FP2. “Still struggling with the same things and again, we tried a lot of things with the car, but it just doesn’t really seem to change anything in terms of my underlying problems.”

“We’ll look overnight if we can find a bit more, but I’m not going to expect a massive turnaround. I think it’s just tricky, plus the layout of the track also probably doesn’t suit our problems that we have with the car.

“Just understeer, that’s my main problem. In the middle sector, there are a lot of long corners, so it’s not great. I think it will be really hard enough [to compete on Sunday] I think to be in that top five, it looks like. We’ll see tomorrow.”

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Despite still being inside the top three of the drivers’ standings, Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda languishes 15 positions lower.

They haven’t had exactly the same car, with different upgrades fitted depending on the surplus of parts, but they should be a lot closer than that.

It shows just how much the 27-year-old has been able to carry his team. No one wants to think about where they would be without him.

Red Bull got one key Verstappen decision ‘totally’ wrong earlier in the campaign, but even without their mistakes, they wouldn’t be much better off.

All they can hope for over the last 10 races of the season is to have some fun and invest all their time and effort at the factory in 2026, so that they don’t start on the back foot next time around.