Max Verstappen's troubles seem to be mounting after a difficult weekend in Mexico.
The Red Bull driver, whose points lead over Lando Norris shrank from 57 to 47 after the Mexican GP, is now facing a grid penalty at the Brazilian GP due to an imminent power unit change.
Verstappen experienced engine problems during both practice sessions in Mexico, forcing the team to replace the engine with another from his existing allocation. However, Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko revealed that the engine they switched to "was no longer suitable for racing."
"We were so slow on the straights," Marko explained. "So we will take an extra engine. This will most likely happen in Brazil."
The penalty for the power unit change will see Verstappen drop five places on the grid at Interlagos. However, Marko believes this is the best option to avoid further performance setbacks. "The older an engine gets, the more the performance decreases," he said.
"A grid penalty of five places is not so severe in Brazil, because you can overtake relatively easily there," Marko added. "But we saw in Mexico that we were about 3-8kph short on the straights. We can no longer afford another race like that."
Marko also admitted that engine issues in Mexico hampered their weekend from the start. "Everything started to go wrong with the engine problems in practice," he said. "But even if the race on Sunday had gone normally, we still wouldn't have been able to match the speed of Ferrari and McLaren."
As Verstappen prepares for Brazil, Marko acknowledged that winning there will be a challenge. "Brazil is a lot of slow corners, which is one of our weaknesses. Qatar is more likely when it comes to the chances of winning."
