Red Bull star Max Verstappen made a ‘mistake’ in Baku that had never been seen before

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The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a race to forget for Red Bull and has left them in a troubling position in the Constructors’ Championship.

For the first time in more than two years, Red Bull have lost their place at the top of the standings to McLaren.

Max Verstappen managed to score a decent number of points but his lead in the Drivers’ Championship was still cut down by Lando Norris despite the British driver starting the race nine places behind him.

Sergio Perez was having his best race in months but couldn’t convert that into a strong points finish after a late collision with Carlos Sainz.

The upcoming Singapore Grand Prix could be equally difficult for Red Bull after their struggles last season, which may leave Verstappen vulnerable to Norris’s advances.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, commentator Harry Benjamin explained an unlikely error he spotted from the Dutch champion.

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Verstappen was virtually perfect race after race last year leading to him winning 19 Grand Prix and storming to his third title.

However, his RB20 has become more and more difficult to drive and Verstappen has taken unusual measures to try and fix the problem.

Benjamin admitted that Verstappen’s explanation that he got the car setup wrong really took him by surprise.

The 26-year-old is very in tune with his car normally but, on this occasion, made a key error.

Harry Benjamin surprised by Max Verstappen’s setup error during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Reflecting on Red Bull’s struggles in Baku, Benjamin said: “The other thing I think that was maybe slightly lost was Red Bull have had these car balance issues for a little while now, I think since May really, [they] tweaked [the] floor in Baku, seemed to find better performance slightly, but Verstappen also wasn’t happy on top of that because his setup was wrong ahead of qualifying.

“I think together, collectively, they’ve made the wrong call when it came to setup and that affected the tyre wear and the graining.

“He had a lot of bouncing on his car to struggle, at one point, we saw him cut the chicane during the race because he was struggling to get it turned in, too much oversteer, they identified that as simply they went the wrong way on setup.

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“So that’s one thing where, okay, fine, you can make those mistakes on setup, but equally, Max Verstappen making a mistake when it comes to setup.

“I can’t recall a time that that’s ever happened. I can’t recall a time Max Verstappen at one point when we were thinking, has he ever made a mistake?

“Has anything ever gone against him in a race, we were scratching our heads to actually think of a time?”

Red Bull not expecting immediate improvement in form in Singapore

Benjamin carried on and admitted that he thinks Red Bull look a bit lost which hasn’t happened for some time.

He wondered if the reduced amount of wind tunnel time over the past few years has finally caught up to them, although that allocation will increase if they fail to win the Constructors’ Championship as expected.

Helmut Marko doesn’t expect Red Bull to be competitive again until Austin but that will only happen if the updates they’re planning to add to the car after Singapore work.

One of the most common themes this season has been teams working on new parts, adding them to the car and watching their lap times get worse because although theoretically they should see improvements, the cars are becoming much more difficult to drive.

Verstappen’s incredible skill has hidden some of these issues for a long time now, but it has reached a point where he’s not able to mask those problems.