Concerned Verstappen lacking pace to fight, keen to avoid trouble in Mexico

Max Verstappen says he does not have the pace to fight for higher than fifth in the Mexico City Grand Prix and needs to stay out of trouble in Sunday’s race.

Red Bull came into the Mexico weekend in strong form, with Verstappen winning three of the previous four races – plus the COTA Sprint – and finishing second to George Russell in Singapore. However, strong one-lap pace on Friday belied poor high fuel performance and Verstappen says the team has not been able to solve the issue after qualifying fifth.

“There’s not much more to say; it’s just been very difficult,” Verstappen said. “We tried a lot of stuff, not a lack of trying, but it’s been not great, let’s put it like that.

“I don’t know [the cause]; just no grip, doesn’t turn… I have no traction, it slides…

“We were not good here last year. I mean, people always think, ‘Ah you won here five times, you need to be good here,’ but last year we were not good as well, and the years before we probably had a big advantage to not really suffer, and now we are definitely not good.”

Given the recent momentum he has built up in the title fight, Verstappen knows how costly it could be to lose significant points to the McLarens, and he doesn’t think he can realistically target gains off the line given his long run performance. 

“No pace so it doesn’t matter what I do in Turn 1, even if I jump two cars they will get me in the race," he said. "I just need to stay out of trouble and do my own race, but every lap I did in the long run has been weak compared to the cars ahead of me, so I’ll just try and follow and see what we can do.

“I’ll figure it out myself tomorrow. If you have an opportunity, you go for it, but I’m more worried just about our pure pace. That has just not been good this weekend.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies believes Red Bull hasn’t managed to get the car in its best performance window, but that any potential race pace gains will only be seen on Sunday.

“It’s fair to say that we didn’t quite manage to put the car in a sweet spot this weekend so far,” Mekies told F1 TV. “Certainly with Max, you probably heard him being very vocal since yesterday and we tried many, many things but we couldn’t quite find a way to give him a car he could push with. With the sort of level of the competition, that’s the price you pay straight away as soon as you fall out of your window. It’s part of the game – we learn, and it’s still a very long race tomorrow.

“A lot of our attention overnight went into trying to see if we could improve the race pace. Whether or not this is what has exposed us a bit more in the short run is difficult to say right now. I think the real answer is after the race.

“Lando looks really, really fast. The Ferrari as well looks very fast this weekend, but it’s still a very long race. It’s a hot race, everybody’s at their limit with the car cooling, with the brake cooling, so a lot of things can still happen. You have all our competitors around us, so I’m sure it won’t be a boring race.”