Red Bull label Max Verstappen “not as extreme” as Sebastian Vettel


Red Bull label Max Verstappen “not as extreme” as Sebastian Vettel

Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull technical chief and a renowned name in the F1 world, Adrian Newey, in his recent chat with The Race, mentioned the difference between Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, both of whom have won the championship with Red Bull. Other than these two, there have been five more world champions in Adrian Newey’s cars.

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While comparing the two Red Bull champions, Newey pointed out the major difference in their functioning as a driver. He termed Sebastian Vettel as more detailed, and extreme and went on to call Max Verstappen someone in the middle, in terms of post-drive evaluation. 

As quoted by The Race, Newey said, “Sebastian [Vettel] was very, very detailed in his post-session analysis. The debriefs would go on for quite some time. Seb would stay long into the evening, going through on-board videos, going through the data, talking to his engineer. That’s what worked for him, it’s not a criticism. Max is not as extreme, is more in the middle.”

Adrian Newey’s thoughts on Max Verstappen

Red Bull's Max Verstappen with Adrian Newey
Max Verstappen with Adrian Newey

Newey has been in F1 since 1988, nine years before Max Verstappen was even born, leave alone started racing. Yet, both seem to get along well in the team.

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The Red Bull CTO commented on the Dutch driver’s prowess. He said, “What’s great about Max is you always know what the car’s capable of because he always gets in it and wrings its neck. His feedback is good, he’s very aware of what the tyres are doing and how to manage them. I think his reputation for being wild is unfair.”

Adrian Newey has been pivotal in the designing of the new RB18, which has been one of the most well-designed and successful cars on the grid this year. He was also there when Red Bull went on to win the four consecutive championships and if all goes well, will be here for the second consecutive championship this year.

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