Max Verstappen offers Red Bull title chances blow: 'Out of my hands'

Max Verstappen has dealt Red Bull's title chances a blow, by insisting that the team is "not the quickest" on the grid, putting the situation "out of my hands". 

It has been a difficult start to Verstappen's title defence, with Red Bull having developed a troublesome car for the Dutchman. 

The four-time world champion has struggled to compete with the McLarens, although shocked the paddock by claiming pole and then winning at Suzuka 

Verstappen has won two of the last three Saudi Arabian Grands Prix and has always been strong at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit; however, it is again McLaren who enter as favourites. 

Following a very disappointing weekend in Bahrain, Verstappen has fallen to 8 points behind Lando Norris in the F1 drivers' title but is not even thinking about defending his title currently. 

The 27-year-old is aware that the title is off the cards until Red Bull can solve its issues, although recognises how quickly things changed last season.

"I'm not thinking about that," Verstappen insisted to select media including RacingNews365. "I just go race by race. Like I said, hopefully it will be better than Bahrain. 

"If we can be a bit in the middle of the two, I think we can already be happy with that and we just move on. The rest is out of my hands anyway. At the moment, we’re not the quickest. 

"Naturally it’s very tough to fight for a championship. But it’s still a very long road. I mean, we were sitting around this time last year, race five, and it was all looking great — and then we all know how the season ended up. 

"So yeah, I'm hopeful that we can still improve things and we'll see what we get."