Max Verstappen worried about Red Bull’s reliability despite title swing against Ferrari and Charles Leclerc

Max Verstappen has won three of five races this season – but DNF in the other two and so still lags behind Charles Leclerc in the championship; Verstappen says Red Bull has ‘problems to be solved’ as it looks ahead Spanish GP, live on Sky Sports F1 on May 22nd

Max Verstappen says Red Bull still have “problems to solve” if they want to beat Ferrari and Charles Leclerc to this year’s Formula One titles, urging their team to advance despite their successive victories.

Verstappen is for many now the favorite to defend his F1 crown this year after winning both the Emilia Romagna and Miami GP in an impressive way, comfortably beating Leclerc in the race on both occasions.

Those triumphs continue Verstappen’s record of winning every race he has finished this season, but the Dutchman, while embracing a fast car, is also worried about the team’s reliability issues.

While this ultimately did not affect his final result, after Sunday’s race Verstappen highlighted his “terrible” disturbed Friday in Miami as he suffered from a hydraulic leak, following the DNF in Bahrain and Australia.

“We still have a few problems we need to solve,” said Verstappen, whose teammate Sergio Perez had engine problems in the race. “We’re fast, but my Friday was awful … which isn’t great if you want to have a good weekend.

“And Checo had a few problems in the race too, so we have to be on top of that. But obviously he has a lot of potential, we just need to make sure he’s reliable.”

Talking to Sky Sports F1Verstappen acknowledged that his 2022 season should be “even better” and added: “We have to make sure these things don’t happen … of course, we work on them non-stop.”

Verstappen said after Saturday’s qualifiers – where he was only third – that Red Bull “cannot afford” to suffer greater unreliability if they overhaul Ferrari and Leclerc, whose lead in the title was suspended.

“We just have to achieve a really positive weekend with no problems,” he continued.

“I mean of course, Imola, we had it, but it’s still a bit of a hit and too many misses. So we just have to be careful to be more reliable and more on top.

“But as you can see the car is fast. I’m very happy about that, I mean, if you were slow and reliable, that’s probably not a good thing either!”

Horner admits problems with Red Bull, but is pleased with the speed

Verstappen had no problems with reliability at the Miami Grand Prix, although teammate Perez had.

Perez suffered from engine gremlins during the race – which caused him to lose strength and perhaps cost him a chance to win as he got stuck in fourth place despite putting on fresh tires after the Safety Car.

“Of course reliability will be an issue,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1.

“We had a problem with the sensor on Checo’s engine and the guys moved them well, but he lost about 30 horsepower.

– He lost half a second in a circle.

Horner, however, believes Red Bull is going in the right direction – with a particularly impressive speed on a straight line.

“We saw in Imola how fast things can change and we have some interesting races ahead of us and the car is going well,” he said.

“We have some shifts coming later in the summer that will help, we need to lose some weight, but overall I think we’re on the right track.”

The Formula 1 season continues with the Spanish Grand Prix with Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. You can watch the whole action live on Sky Sports F1 from May 20 to 22.