Max Verstappen’s retirement from second place in the Australian Grand Prix leaves him, in his words, “already miles behind” Charles Leclerc in the fight for the 2022 Formula 1 world championship.
It’s Verstappen’s second retirement in three races, so despite winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix he’s now 46 points off the world championship lead.
With 20 races to go, there’s plenty of time for Verstappen and Red Bull to catch up, but that’s only possible with a reliable car.
To add to those reliability concerns, Verstappen and Red Bull were outpaced both in qualifying and the race in Australia while Leclerc and Ferrari won after leading every lap from pole position.
So what’s the problem and how big a threat are Red Bull’s current struggles to Verstappen’s hopes of defending the world championship?
Our new video examines what’s going on.
