Max Verstappen names Red Bull ‘big priority’ in ‘fix our problems’ statement

Max Verstappen said Red Bull need to find overall performance but also “fix our problems” with a number of issues affecting the team’s consistency.

Verstappen registered his fourth podium of the season in the final race before the summer break but the wait for a win goes on.

Max Verstappen sets goals for Red Bull

Given Verstappen was 54 seconds behind race winner George Russell at the Belgian Grand Prix, the fact he is back amongst at least podium contention is a sign of how far Red Bull has come but he and the team still look some distance off challenging for race wins as it stands.

While the team is prohibited from working on the car during the summer shutdown, Verstappen was asked what the priorities should be after F1 returns and he highlighted overall performance mixed with fixing “problems”.

“We need to first find more overall performance,” Verstappen, who is sixth in the Drivers’ standings, said. “Then we need to fix our problems, where we sometimes just lose performance over a weekend, or even from the start of the race to the end.”

“So, yeah, that is also actually a big priority.”

Reflecting on his season to date, Verstappen described it as “tough” and stated his wish that they have less of the “issues” that have plagued the team so far this campaign.

“In general, it’s been very tough,” he said. “Some good moments, some bright, shining moments, I guess, but overall, tough.

“So, I think we need to try and be more solid, a bit more all-round, to have more straightforward weekends.

“Plus, we need to find more performance. I mean, it’s as simple as that at the end of the day. Then, besides finding more performance, just not having the issues as well with the current package, let’s say, that we have.”

More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull on PlanetF1.com

The ’20 minute’ conversation that secured Verstappen’s Red Bull future

Red Bull review: Verstappen’s future hangs in balance as teams struggles exposed

Soon that improvement will come at the cost of next year’s car with team principal Laurent Mekies conceding they may not upgrade the RB22 much more.

“I mean I don’t know for the other guys [but] what is sure is that at some stage we need to make a call on the balance between this year and next year,” he said after the most recent race in Hungary.

“I expect that to happen earlier than what we have done last year especially as regulations are what they are, so we will decide.

“But but as far as we are concerned, you know, we have brought a huge amount of development to the car between race one and here, in order to try to correct as soon as possible the large deficit we had initially.

“It’s probably difficult to imagine that we will continue that rhythm, but we nonetheless need to see what is the best way to try and approach these last weekends.”

Read next: F1’s next billion fans? FOM insists the sport is ‘only just’ beginning