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Max Verstappen is the current Formula 1 World Champion. However, in the last season, Red Bull failed to maintain its performance, and after the first races, it lost pace compared to its rivals. Both Ferrari and McLaren were the teams that showed an improvement and began to fight for victories, so much so that they ended up defining the constructors' championshipuntil the last race, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
ForJuan Pablo Montoya, a former F1 driver who achieved seven wins and 30 podiums during his professional career, Red Bull will continue to present similar problemsto those it had last season."Newey came out the other day to say that the problems at Red Bull are not as simple as they think," he explains about the situation of the Austrian team. In addition, Adrian Newey's departure is also expected to have consequences on the new RB21.
With the arrival of Lewis Hamilton and the great performance he had at the end of the year, Ferrari is one of the main candidates to fight for both championships. To which Montoya mentions the following: "Verstappen is not going to be a problem for Lewis this year. I would be surprised if Red Bull came out to fight like in recent years".
"It's really difficult because when you think what you're doing is right and suddenly things stop working, how far back do you go and at what point do you think: 'Is what we're doing now right or are we still wrong?'" Montoya questions. Last season, Red Bull knew the shortcomings of its car, but they did not give it the importance it deserved until it was too late and they began to lose dominance in the races.
"If you say that you're building the car wrong and you realise that what you're doing is wrong, how convinced are you that what you're doing now is completely right? At some point they just have to say, 'This is what we believe in and this is where we're going to put our effort and this is what we're going to do and this is what's going to happen,'" argues the former F1 driver.
So, according to Montoya, if Red Bull failed to solve the problems from last year, its new car will still have the same deficiencies and will not be among the best teams for this season. "You just start moving sideways or even backwards. If you keep going based on wrong principles, you're never going to get out of the hole. And that hole can be very deep, that's the problem," the Colombian reflects
Is Verstappen a sore loser?
For four years in a row, Verstappen has been world champion, so so far he does not know defeat."Max doesn't like to lose, and Max is a guy who would rather crash than let himself be beaten," Montoya said of the current F1 champion's attitude.
Max doesn't like to lose, and Max would rather crash than let himself be beaten
"We saw it at the end of last year, when he did things that surprised people. We were wondering: 'Why did he do that?' When he went up against Lewis and took no prisoners, everyone thought: 'Oh, great. Finally someone is standing up to Hamilton'," adds the former driver. Montoya concludes that Verstappen is often a 'problematic' driver, due to his recent clashes with both Hamilton in the 2021 season, as well as the clashes he had with Lando Norrislast year.
"Now the positions are reversed. And when the one who is winning does something suspicious, they question it. That's something new," Montoya explains about the current Formula 1 situation. However, it will not be long before we really know the level of the teams. Pre-season testing begins on Wednesday, with three days of testing at the Bahrain circuit, where Red Bull will be able to demonstrate the performance of its new car for this year.