'No point racing like this' Max Verstappen offers blunt verdict on Red Bull's Silverstone struggles

Max Verstappen did not hide his frustration after qualifying in seventh place for the British Grand Prix, and even questioned the point of competing on Sunday with a lack of power on the straights.

Four-time champion Verstappen has been critical of Red Bull's lack of performance on multiple occasions this term, but he took things up a notch on Saturday at Silverstone, after struggling with straight-line pace in the early phases of the weekend.

The problems come just weeks after the FIA graded Red Bull's internal combustion engine [ICE] as the best on the grid, something that the team has publicly questioned.

"It's just not going forward," said Verstappen. "It's just not pulling the same as it was. On a track like this, where that is key, you want as much power as you can. It’s extra painful. 

“I've tried a lot of different things through qualifying, but it was just always the same. So, there is a clear problem, and that's something that also worries me for tomorrow, because there is actually no point to race like this.”

He added: “The car yesterday was already not great. I think today, we didn’t really seem to make any improvement on that side, so it was pretty much the same. 

"But at the same time, [we were] also very slow on the straights for whatever reason on my side of the garage, from the first lap, just down on power. And, of course, around here, when you are down on power, you spend more time on the straights, so you burn your battery more, and that has an even bigger effect in the last sector where basically, out of 15, there is no power. 

"So, I just kept losing a lot on the straights. Plus, [the car had] a bad balance, so it was just very, very poor.”

Referring to his experience in the sprint race, an outing in which he started third and finished in sixth, Verstappen said: "In the sprint race, we were getting destroyed in the very high-speed [corners]. I had George behind me, who was catching me in dirty air at high speed, so that says quite a lot. 

"But even in the low-speed [corners], I'm just not happy with how the car has been handling the whole weekend. So, there's a clear disconnect.”