Max Verstappen believes if Red Bull would have Mercedes engines, “anyone would never see us again”.
Though Renault powered Red Bull when the team won to four straight F1 championships with Sebastian Vettel from 2010-13, it has been on the back foot since the start of the current hybrid V6 regulations in 2014. It’s for this reason why Verstappen has said “the only thing what we must improve is the engine” because “chassis performance is now really good”.
Red Bull won 3 times in 2017 season (one for Ricciardo and two for Verstappen) but the team was only the third-best behind Mercedes and Ferrari. “Ours just isn’t that stable compared to what Mercedes and Ferrari have,” the Dutchman said. “But it has to do with several things. Otherwise they would have solved it a long time ago, of course.”
About poor start to last year, Max said “They thought about going for a low drag configuration, but for some reason it just didn’t work out”. Positive aspect is “You’ve seen that the team can turn things around very quickly. The Dutchman continued “Of course, by then your season is already lost, but it does give you confidence for the future that it can go in the right direction.”