The four-time world champion’s Dutch Grand Prix ended in the barriers on lap one, but the weekend was already broken before that. Speaking after the race, Verstappen chose bluntness over spin.

“We are the fourth-fastest team, so it’s not like walking up to Zandvoort and suddenly we can do some magic things,” he told reporters, as quoted by Motorsport Week.

His verdict on the weekend as a whole was just as flat.

“Well, I think overall we had a disappointing weekend, pace-wise. We just couldn’t really fight with the guys ahead.”

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Asked about the Italian Grand Prix on 4-6 September at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Verstappen offered no promises.

“Hopefully in Monza we can be a little bit more competitive.”

“I wish for more, but you need to be realistic this season.”

Lap-one crash on a drying track

The accident came at the opening corners as Zandvoort’s surface dried unevenly. Verstappen said he misread the grip on the racing line.

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“I got caught out, it was still quite wet in that corner.”

“As soon as I saw the dry patch coming, I was like, now you can accelerate, but clearly that didn’t work, so probably it was still a bit too early.”

The impact registered below the mandatory medical-check threshold and he was cleared to leave the circuit without a visit to the medical center. He also revealed he had been unwell all weekend.

“Yeah, it’s just not been feeling well. I’m just looking forward to a week break where I can just recover also, because I really didn’t feel good.”

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Antonelli 130 points clear of Verstappen

The standings back up the pessimism. After 12 rounds, Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers’ championship on 242 points, 59 clear of his teammate George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who are tied on 183, according to RacingNews365. Verstappen sits sixth on 112 points, also behind Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.

Norris won the Zandvoort race after Verstappen’s red-flag-inducing crash on the opening lap.

Red Bull’s slide is structural, not circuit-specific, and Verstappen said rivals have simply kept developing while his team has not.

“Other teams have brought upgrades, we haven’t,” he told PlanetF1. “When you’re already on the back foot, it’s even more on the back foot.”

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Monza’s layout offers no easy fix

Monza should reward a low-downforce, straight-line-quick car, but Verstappen has already warned that the 2026 regulations flatten out the traditional differences between circuit types. He aired the point in July, before the summer break.

“Spa and Monza are going to be more of the same again,” he told Grand Prix.com. “And that is a shame, because I think Spa is a very beautiful circuit. But not with these cars.”

Practice at Monza starts on Friday 4 September, with the race on Sunday 6 September.

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