Verstappen was forced out of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix after a fuel system issue emerged on his Red Bull car, denying him a likely second-place finish.
A similar story played out in the Bahrain season-opener when a separate fuel pump problem meant Verstappen had to retire in the closing stages, costing him another 18 points.
The setbacks mean Verstappen now lies 46 points off runaway championship leader Charles Leclerc after the opening three races of the season, denting his hopes of defending his maiden F1 crown from 2021.
Verstappen acknowledged it was still a long season with 20 races remaining and joked he thought “we need 45 races”, but said Red Bull had to find more pace to get ahead of Ferrari.
“Being already so far down in the championship, I think it’s 46 points, from now on we need to be ahead,” Verstappen said.
“We need to 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…
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