Max Verstappen has admitted that McLaren are a very real title threat, telling his Red Bull team that they need to ‘focus on themselves’ if they are to maintain their place at the top of both the Drivers’ Championship and Constructors’ Championship standings.
After the first five races of the 2024 campaign, Verstappen looked to be cruising towards a fourth successive Drivers’ Championship title. The Dutchman won four of the opening five Grands Prix, with his only time off the top step of the podium being in Australia, where he suffered a mechanical DNF.
In the nine races that have followed, Verstappen has won just three races with McLaren and now Mercedes emerging as significant threats on a weekly basis. Heading into his home race at Zandvoort next weekend, the three-time world champion is winless in four Grands Prix.
Thankfully, some impressive damage limitation means that Verstappen’s lead over Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship stands at 78 points with 10 races remaining. But in the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren have closed to within 42 points of Red Bull, and they are showing no signs of slowing.
“Naturally, if they are the dominant force and they keep winning, then yeah, for sure,” Verstappen replied when asked whether McLaren now have to be considered legitimate threats for both World Championships.
Despite the looming threat of McLaren, Verstappen isn’t panicking. Giving a clear message to his Red Bull colleagues, he added: “But at the end of the day, we just need to focus on ourselves.
“I think we can do things better, maybe as well in terms of optimising the performance. So that’s where my attention goes. Naturally, you have the championship in the back of your mind but I think we first need to focus on just trying to find a bit more performance in the car.”
If Red Bull are going to hold off the threat of McLaren to retain the Constructors’ Championship title then Verstappen will need some help from team-mate Sergio Perez. The Mexican racer received a vote of confidence from Christian Horner and Helmut Marko over the summer break, despite a disastrous race in Belgium last time out.
The 34-year-old has slumped to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship standings and has failed to record a top-six finish in his last eight Grand Prix appearances, so Perez will be feeling the pressure heading into the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.
