Max Verstappen Reveals the Surprising Struggles Behind Red Bull's Canadian GP Victory

Max Verstappen has openly acknowledged that Red Bull is 'not in the flow' as they were last season, despite the team's strategic excellence in clinching the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. Verstappen shared his thoughts following an intense race that saw him claim his 60th career victory.

In the initial stages of the race, Verstappen was beginning to apply pressure on polesitter George Russell. However, a minor misjudgment at Turn 1 allowed Lando Norris to overtake him. Just as it seemed Russell had the upper hand, a braking error at the last chicane gave Verstappen the opening he needed to move up to second place. A perfectly timed Safety Car further erased Norris's advantage, enabling Verstappen to take the lead.

The race took an unexpected turn when McLaren failed to bring Norris in during the crucial Safety Car period. This pivotal mistake handed Verstappen the lead, a position he retained until the end to clinch victory. Speaking about his win, the Dutchman emphasized just how 'rewarding' it was to overcome close competition and treacherous conditions to return to the podium's top step.

'It's very rewarding,' Verstappen stated. 'It’s never an easy race. It's easy to make mistakes, especially on the inters when they were almost becoming slicks. It was very easy to go off because the track was drying in most places, but in some corners, it was still a bit too wet to go to slicks. That made it just very, very difficult.'

'But yeah, it's a lot of fun to drive these kind of races now and then. You don't want it all the time because that's too stressful, but I had a lot of fun out there today.'

Verstappen praised the strategic decisions made by the Red Bull pit wall, lauding their ability to adapt as the weather conditions evolved. He highlighted that avoiding the mistakes that cost McLaren was crucial for their win.

'You're very focused, but you try to remain as calm as you can be, and also the communication to the pit wall and them to you to ask what are the conditions,' he explained. 'And I definitely think as a team, you know, we did make the right calls today. And yeah, that, of course, is also very important.'

However, Verstappen was candid in admitting that Red Bull is not operating at the same impenetrable level as last term. He pointed to electrical issues in practice as evidence of their struggles.

'I mean, I think we are all very focused,' the three-time champion commented. 'We are still doing a lot of things right. But for whatever reason, we are not in that same flow as we had last year, where everything just seemed to be going really well for us. At most places, no reliability issues.'

'And I don’t know, for whatever reason, it’s all a bit more difficult this year. Some things are a bit hard to explain as well. Sometimes it almost feels like you're a bit in a spiral and it maybe takes a bit of time to get out of it. But yeah, we are for sure on top of everything. Of course, there are always things that you can do better. But yeah, we’ll come out of this week and analyse everything again and try to improve.'