“It felt like a puncture, I suddenly had no balance,” Max Verstappen reveals why he struggled at Silverstone
Follow Us
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen did not have the best of outings in Silverstone where the Dutchman was only able to manage a P7 finish after sustaining damage to the side floor of his RB18 from debris left by the collision of AlphaTauri drivers Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
Max Verstappen during the early stages of the race was able to get past Carlos Sainz but immediately had to come into the pits as the Dutchman felt that he incurred a puncture.
However, the situation for the 24-year-old got worse as after coming back onto the track Verstappen found it difficult to get to grips with the car as he lacked downforce and was heard on the radio saying my car is 100% broken.
Max Verstappen was never able to recover in the race and was tumbling down the order as the race was progressing, at one point he was in danger of finishing 10th as he was in the striking range of the Haas cars that were behind him.
However, Esteban Ocon’s late DNF gave the Dutchman a lifeline, and after the safety car, he was able to finish in P7. At Silverstone, it was all about damage limitation for the 2021 World Champion.
Max Verstappen on his issues in Silverstone
“I didn’t ask yet how much [downforce] I lost, but, I already spoke to Carlos, he said ‘what happened, you were just losing parts!’ when I was in the lead, and when I jumped out of the car I had a look under the floor and the whole left-hand side underneath is completely ruptured,” Verstappen said. “Like, everything is gone.”
“Because, once I got into the lead after Carlos made a mistake, like a few corners later in Turn 5 there was a piece of carbon, but by the time I was there it was on the racing line, I could not drastically move left or right, so I tried to just hit it head on, but instead it just went into my floor and it just destroyed everything.”
“It felt like a puncture because suddenly I had no balance, a lot of oversteer, like the car was hopping a lot.”
“So then of course we decided to box, and even after that the car was just completely a handful to drive.”
“The tough bit was just to try and find a nice, let’s say, aero balance, because of the massive loss of mainly rear load, to try and back off the front wing, but of course when you do that you lose overall load as well.”
“So that wasn’t ideal on the hard tyre set, so for the last set we went up [on the front wing] again to try and give a bit more performance in low speed.”
“But yeah, it was very tough – but at the end I think seventh place was still a good result with the damage I had.”
There was a point in the race where the Dutchman felt that his race was over but after getting assurance from the pit crew about not sustaining any structural damage, he kept going and was able to finish for the team.
While talking about it afterward Verstappen said, “As soon as GP [race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase] says it’s safe to drive, I mean, he would never put me in danger.”
“I know when they tell me it’s bodywork damage, and we can see the losses in downforce, then it’s fine. I know there is damage, but if there is like suspension damage it’s a different story. Luckily it wasn’t that.”
Silverstone hasn’t been kind to Verstappen in recent years as during 2021 he came away with a DNF after going into the barriers at high speed and this year finished a disappointing P7 for the team.
However, if we look at the bright side, this year he was at least able to finish the race. Next up on the F1 calendar is the Austrian Grand Prix which is a home race for Red Bull and during the upcoming weekend, the team certainly would be looking to get back on winning ways and put the surprising slip-up of Silverstone behind them.
Also Read: “He is in his own league,” Toto Wolff hails Lewis Hamilton’s masterclass at Silverstone
Stay Updated!
Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)