Verstappen labels races with Red Bull Racing as 'depressing'

So far this season McLaren has remained the most dominant team on the grid, can Red Bull Racing challenge that with their new upgrades? Verstappen does not think so.

Red Bull Racing is taking another step towards improving its performance.

Verstappen, however, remains realistic about the upgrades. "We have already had a few races with some updates, so this is again a little step forward."

In a conversation with GPBlog and others, he added, "Hopefully we find a bit more performance in the car, but I don't expect to suddenly close the gap to McLaren."

After the Miami Grand Prix, Verstappen saw a new cause for concern in the battle against McLaren.

"The race pace was depressing for everyone except for McLaren. No one was even in the same league there, so that is a big concern," he explained.

Some teams believe that this will change at the Spanish Grand Prix, where new rules regarding wind flexibility will be introduced.

Once again, Verstappen does not feed into those expectations. "That will not give you eight-tenths of a second," he said, referring back to his gap to race winner Oscar Piastri in Miami.

Regarding the performance gap between Verstappen and the McLarens, he said, "No, we never really had that gap [in 2023]. But it's also a bit track-specific. Sometimes it works a bit better for them because there's a bit more thermal degradation than others. The advantage will not always be that big."

Verstappen added about Mercedes' dominant era in 2014-2015, "Back then, the dominance was quite big. Every era is a little bit different. In terms of how the dominance is sustained, every single weekend it seems a little bit different." 

Is it clear that Verstappen does not believe Red Bull can catch up, but what do YOU think?