Max Verstappen branded his second retirement in three races in 2022 “unacceptable” and warned he was miles behind in the title battle following the Australian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc dominated the race weekend for his second grand prix victory of the season to extend his championship lead over Verstappen to 46 points.
Verstappen, who had also retired from the season opener in Bahrain and is now sixth in the drivers’ standings, said: “We are already miles behind. I don’t want to think about the championship fight.
“Today was a bad day again, not really having the pace, I was just managing the tyres. It looked like quite an easy P2. I knew I could not fight Charles. We didn’t even finish the race which is frustrating and unacceptable.”
Verstappen’s mechanics looked to be making late fixes to his car in the minutes leading up to the race and the defending world champion was warned there could be an issue with the car.
He complained over the race radio on lap 39 of smelling “weird fluid” and pulled up on the side of the track seconds later.
“I knew there was a problem,” he said in the aftermath. “It was always going to be a question mark about finishing the race. They have to get the car back now and investigate.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it was unclear what the issue was shortly after the race but said he did not think it was engine related.
“I think it’s fuel related,” he said. “That was a really disappointing outcome to not finish the race. It’s totally understandable his [Verstappen’s] frustration. We didn’t have the pace to race Charles today. They were in a league of their own.”
Red Bull and Verstappen find themselves on the back foot in the title race but still have 20 races in which to take the fight to the Ferraris.
Despite the reliability issues, Horner added: “I’d rather fix a fast car than make a slow reliable one fast. We need to understand what the issue is and fix it. We’ve things in the pipeline that will help. We need to put this behind us, address it and move on.”
