Pushed on why nothing seems to go right at Red Bull anymore, Max Verstappen reached for humour.
“Maybe I’ve hit a black cat. I don’t know what’s causing it.”
The line was delivered at Silverstone in early July, and it lands very differently to the way the Dutchman spoke a year ago.
This is the driver who was world champion in each of the four seasons from 2021 to 2024. In 2026 he has slipped to sixth in the standings on 109 points, 110 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.
Silverstone wing failure at Stowe
At the same British Grand Prix, Verstappen’s rear wing failed to fully close as he entered Stowe.
He was pitched into a spin at high speed and out of the race, the second such wing malfunction in as many rounds after a similar problem in Austria.
He called the failure “super dangerous” and made clear he had disagreed with the pre-race plan.
“I wanted to start from the pitlane. Maybe they were confident to fix it, I was not.”
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Cost cap ties Red Bull’s hands
Verstappen has been open about why he sees no easy route back.
The budget cap leaves Red Bull with little room to throw new parts at an RB22 that has struggled all year with balance through slower corners.
“You also have the cost cap to deal with. Because of that, you can’t keep bringing a lot of upgrades to the car.”
Hungary offered a rare bright note. Verstappen dragged the car to second on 26 July, the final race before the shutdown, at a circuit that on paper should not have suited it.
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Home race at Zandvoort on 23 August
Formula 1 resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix on 21-23 August. Verstappen races in front of his home crowd at Zandvoort with the championship already gone and Red Bull hoping Hungary was the start of a recovery rather than another outlier.
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