Max Verstappen isn't "frustrated" by Mercedes' domination but claims "90%" of Formula 1 drivers could win in their 2020 car.
In a year that had been hyped as the Dutchman's best chance to finally challenge for the championship, instead, he's found himself in no-mans-land just behind the Brackley-based team, with the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix Verstappen's only win so far.
“Yeah, I’m in the middle of nowhere in this championship. From my side, I never thought I was in a championship battle," he told the official F1 magazine recently.
"I will finish third if I don’t keep retiring. In general, that’s the place where we belong.
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"If you are 60 points or 10 behind in third, it doesn’t really matter, you’re slower. We just need to learn why we have these issues because to have three retirements (four including Imola) is not good. We just have to try to do better.”
Verstappen also insists he remains motivated despite another season passing him by without threatening Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton's place at the top.
“No, I’m not frustrated about that,” he says. “I have a lot of respect for what they’ve achieved.
"I’m not frustrated about Lewis in a Mercedes car. To be honest, 90% of the field could win in that car. Nothing against Lewis, he’s a great driver, but the car is so dominant.
“OK, maybe others wouldn’t be as dominant as Lewis is, but you accept the situation you are in and you just try to make the best of it. I’m not frustrated, I’m more focused on what can we do to try and beat them.”
The main issue this year has been an unpredictable Red Bull car which has been too pointy at the front and didn't deliver the performance that was suggested in the windtunnel.
But while some progress in fixing those problems has been made during the season, Verstappen doubts there'll be enough gains for the 2021 RB16B to take on Mercedes regularly.
“Personally I don’t think we will because of all the limitations we have at the moment in terms of what you can develop on the car," he said.
"Maybe some other people in the team will say something different. From my side I’m just realistic, I don’t think we can. So next year will be another tough one. Hopefully, we’ll be a bit better but it will still be difficult to beat the Mercedes.”
Instead, more hopes are being put on the all-new cars for 2022 but there are other areas Verstappen wants Red Bull to address.
“There are quite a few things at the moment,” he said.
“First of all we are always too slow at the beginning [of the season], so we need to make sure we have a car that hits the ground running and is a lot more competitive.
“How to do that? Clearly, we haven’t found it, so we need to change our approach. We need to find a different way of working.
"In terms of operations, we are good: we have really good pitstops, we’re good at strategy. I don’t think there are a lot of things that go wrong there.
"Besides that, clearly this year we were lacking in power. There are quite a few things we have to work on to be able to fight them [Mercedes].”
