Mark Webber is concerned that Red Bull might struggle to give Max Verstappen a strong enough car to retain the lead of the World Championship. With six races remaining in the 2021 season, Verstappen currently has a six-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' standings. However, Mercedes appeared to have the stronger pace in the Turkish Grand Prix, with Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas claiming a dominant victory. Webber thinks that Red Bull now have to respond by ensuring that they can match the Silver Arrows as the title fight edges into its closing stages. "I think that my little concerns off the back of [the race] are: are Red Bull giving Max the car closing this championship out?" Webber told the F1 Nation podcast. "Because I think that I would have lost a lot of money for Valtteri to have the measure of Max in those conditions. I thought Verstappen would run rings around him all day long, but he couldn't react to the speed of Valtteri. "It was interesting. I think in terms of performance [in both the] dry and wet, Red Bull know they need to react to the Mercedes' pace now, with these new engines that Mercedes have put in the back of the car, or some aero, or whatever's going on. "Max is really hanging in there. OK, he had a shunt in Monza, but I think [in] Russia he drove brilliantly, obviously, and that's all he could get out of the car in Turkey as well." Whilst Webber is a fan of Hamilton, the Australian is backing Verstappen to take his first World Championship victory. "I think Max thoroughly deserves his first world title," Webber said. "It's long overdue, and he's driving if not the best [then he's] certainly matching Lewis pound for pound most weekends."
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