Max Verstappen urges Red Bull to ‘push even harder’ as rivals catch up to Milton Keynes

Max Verstappen highlighted that Red Bull must bounce back after four winless races in a row for the first time since 2020.

Max Verstappen urges Red Bull to ‘push even harder’ as rivals catch up to Milton Keynes

Max Verstappen, Helmut Marko, and Christian Horner (Via: Imago)

Red Bull has failed to bring consistent performance recently compared to the first few races. The energy drink giant constantly lost points due to Sergio Perez failing to reach the top 10 in Qualifying in four out of six races. Additionally, Max Verstappen faced reliability issues with his car’s power unit. He expressed his unhappiness with RB20’s performance on kerbs and bumps on tracks. This gave an advantage to their rivals to catch up to them and match them on top. Recently, Verstappen received a ten-place grid penalty, for changing it’s engine for the fifth time out of four.

Max Verstappen recently urged his team to push harder after the summer break, because their rivals are getting more eager to win. He believed that their recent drop in performance should have been as motivating as their desire for success. Verstappen acknowledged that people often said setbacks could be motivating, but he personally didn’t like to think that way. The 26-year-old did not agree with the people’s mindset of getting motivated by failure. Therefore, the Dutchman wants his team to work and push even harder than before to maintain their lead in championships.

The drop in performance should be as motivating as the pursuit of success. You can always say so, but I never like to think that way myself.
Max Verstappen told Formula.hu
YouTube video

Verstappen believed that when a team is a top team, they need to work even harder to stay ahead. He reckoned that this should be the mindset and an approach every leader must follow. As Red Bull’s performance has declined in recent races, summer break can be the best for making improvements in their car and working harder. Thus, the Dutchman reckoned that always striving to improve and pushing yourself harder is the right attitude to have in order to keep winning.

FS Video
When you're the winning team, you have to push even harder, that should be the mentality and the way it goes.
Max Verstappen added.
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Max Verstappen claims rivals are hungrier to win against Red Bull

Rivals McLaren and Mercedes have become way faster than they were during the beginning of the season. Verstappen believed that these teams are very eager and motivated to replace Red Bull from the top. The Dutchman also appreciated their performances in recent races. However, he reckoned that now it’s up to Red Bull to respond to these challenges. This clearly means the energy drink giant needs to step up their game and work even harder to stay ahead. They should make necessary adjustments recognising the efforts of their rivals.

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
The people who are chasing you, they have the hunger to win and the desire to try to beat you. And they've been doing a good job of it lately, so it's up to us to respond.
Max Verstappen stated.

Certainly, Max Verstappen believed that Red Bull needs to work very hard because they’ve lost some crucial points in the first half of the season. The summer break was much more needed for the team to evaluate the problems they’ve been facing recently. The F1 2024 brings the last 10 rounds after the break for Red Bull to show their dominance once again or loose their titles to their competitors.

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