Max Verstappen has ‘no reason to believe’ in chances of winning F1 championship over Red Bull problems

Max Verstappen says ‘there is no reason to believe in’ his chances of defending his Formula 1 drivers’ title after a second retirement in three races meant he dropped 46 points behind championship leader Charles Leclerc.

The Dutchman took his maiden championship in December at the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but has been beset by reliability problems at the beginning of F1’s new era, which has seen car designs completely revamped in an attempt to increase the excitement of racing.

So far the changes appear to have had the desired effect, with cars able to follow one another more easily and drivers racing each other harder, but Verstappen has dropped out of the races in Bahrain and Australia with mechanical failures.

Ferrari have built a car for the 2022 season which appears both fast and reliable, and while the Red Bull closely matches it on speed, its durability concerns mean Verstappen is a lowly sixth in the standings and is not confident about his chances of winning a second successive title.

‘Being already so far down in the championship, I think it’s 46 points, from now on we need to be ahead [of Ferrari in each race],’ Verstappen told the press after the race in Melbourne. ‘We need to be quicker, which we are not at the moment. And we need to be reliable, which we are also not. So there’s a lot of things to work on. I don’t even think about [trying to win the championship from this position]. At the moment, there is no reason to believe in it.’

Verstappen did win the race in Saudi Arabia in March, the only one he has managed to finish so far this campaign. He had engaged in a tactical tussle for the lead with Leclerc in Jeddah and at Sakhir the previous weekend, and the rivalry between two drivers who have