McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes it will be difficult for 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen to maintain his F1 title challenge without Red Bull impr♏oving the🔯ir car.

Verstappen reduced168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lando Norris’ lead at the top of the F1 dri💟vers’ standings to just one po🌳int after his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The four-tim🅷e F1 world champion delivere💞d a masterclass to take his first win of the campaign, halting McLaren’s win streak.

McLaren were left to rue both drivers underperforming in qualifying, while their strategy on race day was scrutinised for being too conservܫatiꦏve.

Even though Verstappen won at Suzuka, McLaren are st♚ill the heavy favourites for both titles🍸.

Speaking after the race in Japan on Sunday, Stella conceded that Verstappen is “making the difference himse𒀰lf”.

However, Stella noted that it will be “very difficult” for Verstappen to remain in the title fight for the whole season if Red Bull don'﷽t improve.

“So somehow this relates to what I said before it’s important that when we are not in condition to win we keep racing in a🌞 robust way.

𒈔“🍸Okay, like if you can’t win, finish on the podium and in the long term if you keep performing like this, I think this will be rewarding.

“I think Maxꦉ, at the moment, is somehow making the difference himself, but iꦕt’s very difficult to keep up for 24 events in a season if you don’t have the best car.”

Stella still wary of Mercedes and Ferrari

Stella is refusing to rule out Mercedes🌞 or Ferrari during the remainder of the seaso𒉰n.

Ferrari dominated the sprint part of the weekend in China, with168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lewis Hamilton taking the win from pole position.

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell sta💎rted the year with back-to-back podium fﷺinishes for Mercedes.

“We treat Max and Red Bull like Russel♒l,” he added. “How can you discount Leclerc-Hamilton?

“꧅Like obviously Ferrari is struggling a little bit now, but we treat all these certainly within the spectrum of the full season, at least until we have stabilised a little bit.

“Because I think at the moment we are still falling within the variability of the circuits. We have Hamilton winning the Sprint in China, Russell being competitive in the race in Chinaꦦ. Here we have R🍨ed Bull and Max.

“I think we’re still in a transient phase, we🌼’ll have to see how things settle down.”