Verstappen Says ‘No Reason to Believe in Title’ After Second DNF in Three Races

The 2022 Formula One campaign is definitely not going how Red Bull or Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, expected.

The last three races have been a roller coaster as the 24-year-old was forced to retire in the Bahrain Grand Prix, won the Saudi Arabian GP the following week and had another fuel-related issue in Australia that led to a second DNF. When he pulled the vehicle off to the side of the road, Dutchman could be heard on his team radio saying he could smell a “weird fluid.” 

“These kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the Melbourne race. Even when he was forced to exit the race when fumes of smoke came from his vehicle, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who won the race, was far out of reach. 

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"We need to be faster than them, which we're not,” said Verstappen. “And have zero problems with the car, which we also don't have. So it's going to be a big task.”

He later added to reporters about a second title: “At the moment, there is no reason to believe in it.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said, per Formula1.com, “It’s totally understandable, his frustration. That was a really disappointing result not to finish the race. We don’t know what the issue is yet, I don’t think it was actually engine-related. I think it might be a fuel issue, but we need to get the car back, we need to look at what’s exactly happened …

“Until we get the car back, we don’t have the data, we don’t have the info. But desperately frustrating. I think as Max said, we didn’t have the pace to race Charles today—[Ferrari] were in a league of their own. But it’s frustrating not to be bagging those points.”

Leclerc leads the driver’s standings at the moment with a whopping 71 points compared to second-place George Russell, who has 37. Verstappen, meanwhile, is sixth with 25 points. 

However, Verstappen is not the only driver who has a Red Bull stamped engine this season to encounter issues. Teammate Sergio Pérez also was forced to retire early during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, drivers for the sister program AlphaTauri, have also experienced glitches. 

Formula One is now headed to Imola, Italy, for the weekend of April 22, a track where Verstappen won by more than 20 seconds last season. Can Red Bull diagnose the problems plaguing his vehicle during the bye week?