Coming into this new era of Formula 1 with fresh rules and regulations, it was a mystery about who would be able to maximize on a drastic rule change. Red Bull finishing 2nd in constructors in the 2021 season were one of the teams to lookout for. Red Bull finished the 2021 season on a high with their star driver, Max Verstappen claiming his maiden Formula 1 world title. The 2022 season has been a bitter sweet one for the team so far. They have been able to develop a fast car under the new regulations, but not one which looks reliable to finish a Grand Prix.
The defending world champion, Max Verstappen has been able to finish only 1 Grand Prix out of the 3 so far. This has resulted in the Dutchman losing valuable points in the championship and falling quite behind his rivals. The Milton Keynes based team, Red Bull on pace look the second highest team on the grid after the Ferrari team. However, the team still needs to find answers for its reliability issues if it plans on going and fighting for the championship in this exhilarating Formula 1 season.
Red Bull reliability testing Max Verstappen’s Patience
The Red Bull team having a competitive package have high expectations, but they still need to cover the lost ground from the DNF’s they have suffered. The Dutch driver, Max Verstappen was running in 2nd behind the Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc when he had to pull up his car on the side of the Melbourne track. Helmut Marko revealed that “After he retired, he returned to the pit box and we discussed everything calmly“.
However, Max Verstappen is not racing in the sport to show politeness as he quite well demonstrated in the 2021 season. Acknowledging this fact, Helmut Marko added, “If we don’t win again soon, he is indeed a time bomb.” He further explained about Max Verstappen’s struggle with RB-18 commenting “Sometimes he still lacks the confidence with the set-up of his car to maintain his extreme driving style. You can see that Sergio Pérez is closer to him than before, but he is a lot calmer anyway“.
Heading into the Imola Grand Prix, Max Verstappen sits at 6th position in the driver’s championship. However, it is a weekend full of opportunities as the weekend contains the sprint race weekend format, which translates into 34 maximum points for a sole driver. Only time will tell if we will see a happy Max Verstappen at the end of it or one which is about to blow up.
