Sky Sports F1’s Nico Rosberg says it is “dark times” at Red Bull after Max Verstappen finished seventh in a “shocking” qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.
Verstappen suffered his worst qualifying of the year and was seven tenths down on pole-sitter Lando Norris, who is 70 points behind the championship leader.
It is a continuation of Red Bull's dip in form before the summer break and at last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, where Verstappen finished 23 seconds behind Norris.
Verstappen was second in Q2 and expected to be in the fight for pole but he struggled to get his tyres working in the final part of qualifying and only narrowly beat Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.
"It's shocking, it's unbelievable where Verstappen is," said 2016 F1 world champion Rosberg.
"This weekend I'm pretty sure they don't understand the tyres and what's going on there.
"That's dark, dark times there. Max doesn't understand and it's all going away from them, which is so unexpected. It's really surreal.
"So that is such a tough situation to be in for them, because also there can come panic very quickly. Both championships are starting to slip away, even the Drivers' Championship. If it continues like this, that will slip away very quickly."
Verstappen: Car is not very drivable
Verstappen hasn't won the last five events, his longest winless streak since 2020, and that run is set to continue after Sunday.
Should the Italian Grand Prix finish as it starts, then a one-two for McLaren, with Verstappen and Perez down in seventh and eighth, would see Red Bull drop behind the Woking-based team in the Constructors' Championship.
Red Bull have not clearly stated what's caused their rivals to catch and overhaul them but it seems like something has gone wrong with their development, which has put the car into a narrow operating window.
"The car is very difficult to drive and to find a good balance in it. If you have one issue and try to fix that, then there is another issue," Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.
"It's just not very driveable, let's put it like that. I thought Q2 was not too bad but then somehow in Q3 everything just felt really bad again. I had a lot of understeer on both tyres - that I cannot explain.
"I lost a lot of lap time, I couldn't really push the tyres, so struggling a lot with that for a reason, which I don't understand at the moment."
Verstappen's long-run pace on Friday was a match for McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, so he could be in the fight for the podium.
He has Lewis Hamilton in front of him in sixth, plus the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, with George Russell in third behind the two McLarens.
A one-stop race will make things tricky for Verstappen to move up the grid and he isn't optimistic about his chances.
"All the long runs that I did were also not really promising," he said.
"The problem is that our car is just not balanced, and when you don't have a balanced car, it's hard on tyres and everything becomes even more difficult in the race. And I think that's what will happen tomorrow as well."
Asked if he was concerned about the title battles, he added: "The last few races have not been great, so we have to really try to turn it around and become more competitive."
Horner: Something is clearly wrong
Red Bull have won just three races since the Miami Grand Prix at the start of May, where McLaren began to consistently fight at the front.
With nine races remaining, Red Bull face a serious battle to win both titles and Christian Horner says Sunday's race will be "tough".
"Something is fundamentally happening that we are not on top of at the moment," said Horner.
"We need to obviously understand it and understand why on the older tyre we're able to do that time, and two sets of new tyres we couldn't get anywhere near it.
"Q2 didn't look took too bad, still the handling characteristics that Max has been talking, but then Q3, there's something amiss that the others can all improve on new tyres but we were miles away. So we need to understand that and understand it quickly."
Verstappen and Perez ran different floor specifications at Zandvoort, before converging to run the new floor this weekend at Monza.
But early indications are that the car comparisons between the Red Bull pair haven't improved the performance.
"We are looking at everything. We ran older spec last week to see if that redressed any of the issues at all," continued Horner.
"But the reality was we still had the same handling characteristics and issues with that spec from the beginning of the year.
"That's given an awful lot of data for the guys, but a lot to get our head around and we need to address it quickly. We can see the McLarens have made a significant step over the last few races and we are now behind Ferrari and Mercedes here as well.
"A lot to do. Race points are tomorrow but starting seventh and eighth, that's going to be tough.
"I think there's something that clearly isn't working on the car. We're trying to unravel that and understand. There will be an engineering solution to an engineering problem."
Sky Sports F1's live Italian GP schedule
Sunday September 1
7:30am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11am: Porsche Supercup
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: The ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
Watch the Italian Grand Prix live this Sunday at 2pm on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership, No contract, cancel anytime.
