Red Bull’s car has been more competitive than the team’s results since the summer break indicate, according to Max Verstappen.

Prior to the summer break Verstappen scored two wins and a pole position in four races. Ferrari and Mercedes have taken all the wins and poles since.

However Verstappen said the team have been competitive at several races, and a combination of errors and misfortune has prevented them from scoring better results.

“When you look back after the summer break, we were also very competitive in Monza, which you wouldn’t expect,” he said. “So it was not all that bad.

“But of course, we also had to take engine penalties. So starting from the back the best you really could do was fifth and then, of course, it doesn’t look like an amazing result.”

Verstappen crashed on the first lap at Spa. After those two races on high-speed tracks many expected the team to be stronger in Singapore but Verstappen admitted “we made a set-up mistake” and they were beaten by the Ferraris.

“Then Suzuka was always going to be a bit of a tricky one because you can nail the set-up for qualifying or not, and then immediately it can be a big difference,” he continued. “And I was not very happy with the set-up we had in qualifying so it didn’t look amazing.

“But still I had a good start, was virtually in [third], but then I got taken out of course. That would have been a nice result as well for us.”

Mexico brought more frustration as a penalty cost Verstappen pole position and a collision with Valtteri Bottas ruled him out of contention for victory. Had the cards fallen better for the team, Verstappen believes they “could be talking very different about the last few races.”

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2019 F1 season