Verstappen worried: 'This is obviously going to go wrong one day'

"McLaren have been very strong in the last few weeks. I have been hammering all along that we need to come up with more performance. Everyone knows that too. Obviously, the teams around us have brought more updates than us so far. In the end, they [McLaren] are doing better than us, otherwise, they are not in front of me. We are also improving, of course, but not enough compared to the rest," Verstappen revealed to De Telegraaf and others.

Why Verstappen is worried about McLaren

Although Verstappen does not want to say that he is already worried, the Dutchman also realises that there are still many races to go. The Spanish Grand Prix is the tenth race on the F1 calendar, followed by 14 more Grands Prix. Therefore, according to Verstappen, things could go fast if McLaren have the better car now.

With that, the dominance of a year ago has really disappeared. Verstappen now has to fight for pole position and victory every weekend, meaning he can no longer afford to make a mistake. "Now the important thing for us is to make steps to keep winning. Whether we can do that soon? I hope so. Because the others are making bigger strides than us. As a team in terms of performance, we actually always do well in qualifying and races. But we just lack speed. That's been going on for a few weeks now."

Although Verstappen would rather have a wider margin and take pole position, he also jokingly stated that he is paid to get the most out of his car every session. However, the three-time world champion did emphasise: "If you have to drive at 101 per cent every time as a driver, of course, it's going to go wrong at some point."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy