With the general consensus that Red Bull may well be in trouble this season, Max Verstappen hasn’t done much to allay those fears.

Both experts at testing and the bookmakers agree that McLaren have the fastest car, while many are claiming that Red Bull could even be fourth behind Ferrari and Mercedes.

Verstappen was forced to put on a brave faceCredit: AFP

But it looks like he may well swap places with NorrisCredit: Getty

Verstappen has won the last four drivers’ championships, but there was plenty of evidence their era at the top may be over as McLaren claimed the constructors’ ahead of Ferrari.

With that downward trend looking like it will continue in 2025, the Dutch No.1 wasn’t the most positive in his first press conference of the season.

“We’re not the quickest,” he told the media ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

“It’s a very long season, if you asked that question here last season, then at the end of the season it’s completely different, so a lot of things can change quite quickly.

“We’ll try to do our best, there’s not really much more that we can do. Testing is not many days so we already found a few areas that we can work on, and we’ll continue to do so.”

Verstappen had the most dominant season in F1 history in 2023 with 19 wins from 21 races, but things took a dramatic turn last year.

Allegations around team principal and CEO Christian Horner dogged their early season, and then their star driver’s father, Jos Verstappen, publicly attacked Horner in the media.

Legendary car designer Adrian Newey then announced his departure, and things went downhill from there, with Verstappen going ten races without a win.

Teammate Sergio Perez was all the way down in eighth in the standings, showing just how elite Verstappen is, and even though he insisted the team will progress, he continued in a similar tone throughout the press conference.

When asked if he doesn’t think they can challenge for wins due to the pace of McLaren, he simply replied: “Exactly that. I don’t know, you answered it for yourself.”

The experts think Verstappen and Norris will trade places this season

And then he was questioned on how he prepares for a title defence and gave a thoughtful answer.

“There’s a lot of things you made me think about that I don’t think about,” he responded.

“So it’s actually way more relaxing to go into it, don’t think about it, trust the people around you and go from there.

“Work hard on and off track, try to address things that you don’t like in the car, and always try to do the best on track, minimize mistakes and keep scoring points.”

One final question was then levelled on whether this would be his toughest title defence yet, and the 27-year-old answered: “I don’t know, I don’t think about it, there’s no reason to think about it.”