Max Verstappen's father, Jos Verstappen, suggested that the Red Bull Racing F1 team didn't listen to his son's input at the start of the season.
Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team drivers went from scoring three one-two results and outperforming everyone by a huge margin to qualifying in P7 and P8 during the 2024 Italian Grand Prix weekend.
At this point of the season, Red Bull was still leading in both Championships, but if it finishes in an order similar to the qualifying session, that might not be the case after the weekend.
P7 and P8 in qualifying suggest that the Austrian team clearly no longer has the fastest car—according to Max Verstappen, that has been the case for a long time already.
What's more though, it looked like Red Bull might be only the fourth fastest team during the qualifying at Monza Circuit. Jos Verstappen thinks he knows part of the reason why they keep falling lower and lower.
Apparently, Red Bull did not listen to Max Verstappen's input or didn't take it very seriously at the start of the season when they were still dominating. According to Lastwordonsports.com, Verstappen Sr told JOE radio station:
"Verstappen already indicated at the beginning of the season that the balance was not right."
"That was not brought out – because you try to keep that inside [of the team]. But back then, he was already complaining about the balance."
"Only they didn't really believe it, or they didn't see it back then, and now you're actually a little bit too late."
Max Verstappen's lead in the Drivers' Championship seemed so large going into the summer break that almost no one would bet money on Norris catching up with him.
Speaking ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, though, the Dutchman seemed to have already accepted the possibility that he might not win the title this year.
If he finished the Italian Grand Prix where he qualified- P7 and Norris won the race and scored the fastest lap, the gap between the two drivers in the Championship would come down by 20 points.
That would mean the triple World Champion would be leading by 50 points with eight Grand Prix weekends to go before the end of the season. What do you think? Who is now more likely to win the Championship?