Verstappen not getting carried away after P2 finish at Zandvoort as he hopes Red Bull can avoid ‘very tough’ Monza repeat

Max Verstappen has played down his and Red Bull’s return to the podium at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, saying the team “need to stay realistic” as the F1 paddock rolls on to Monza.

Verstappen’s drive to second position at Zandvoort ended a run of four weekends without a Grand Prix rostrum finish – his success in that period being limited to victory in the Spa-Francorchamps Sprint.

While there were some positives for Red Bull to take from the event, Verstappen made clear during Thursday’s media duties in Italy that plenty of work lies ahead if they are to challenge for overall honours again.

Asked what can be expected from Red Bull’s package at the Temple of Speed, a low-downforce track that differs greatly to Zandvoort’s high-downforce requirements, Verstappen replied: “Good question. I don’t even know myself.

“It was nice to be on the podium in Zandvoort. Of course we need to stay realistic. I think the pace in the race wasn’t anything particularly strong, so there’s still a few things that we need to understand a bit better, why in the race it didn’t really go to plan.

“But this is a completely different track, low-downforce, completely different corners as well. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow [in practice]. Hopefully we can start a bit in a good place and just go from there.”

Zandvoort also brought another example of Red Bull making significant overnight progress between the first and second days of a race weekend – the RB21 and its predecessor proving difficult to dial in over the last two seasons.

Verstappen stated after Friday practice for his home event that it would be “hard to be in the top five”, only to qualify third behind the McLarens and be their closest challenger in the Grand Prix – moving into second when Lando Norris retired late on.

On whether the need for such day-to-day gains can be resolved, he said: “Yeah, we try. It’s not that we do it on purpose, but unfortunately this car is sometimes a bit difficult to understand.

“I just hope that this weekend will be a bit more straightforward, but I cannot guarantee you that right now. Last year here was very tough for us, the car was really not performing where we wanted it to be. I just hope everything is a bit more balanced this weekend.”

Verstappen’s comments refer to a particularly painful Monza weekend for Red Bull 12 months ago, when he and then team mate Sergio Perez were three quarters of a second off the pace in Qualifying and could only place sixth and eighth respectively on race day.