After the Bahrain incident with Lewis Hamilton, paddock pundits were asking Max Verstappen if he needed to calm down a bit for the Chinese Grand Prix. Max, in his inimitable style, said that he would simply be “Max”.
That “Max” saw another collision taking Sebastian Vettel off the podium adding salt to a wound the German was already feeling having been beaten by Mercedes strategy denying him a win. While Max was hitting, spinning and gaining penalties, his teammate was creating opportunity and taking opportunities when they were offered in order to win the race…something Red Bull boss Helmet Marko says Max threw away.
“There was a victory for him on the table, but he gave it away.
“But still it was a very good drive from both our drivers. He 19 or 20, he’s bloody young, and it can happen.”
From Max’s perspective, we saw a more contrite Verstappen than in the past:
“I could see he was struggling on the tyres and tried to brake late in the corners,” he said.
“I locked the rears and hit him. It was of course my fault. Not what I want.
“It is easy to say after that I should have waited, and that probably would have been the best idea, but unfortunately it happened.”
There is no doubt a boat load of raw talent in Max and as any young driver realizes, racing in F1 is equal parts aggression, opportunism and patience. Letting the race come to you is part of a driver’s arsenal and his teammate showed that on Sunday.
Daniel made some terrific passes which he needed in order to put him in a position to win but he let those opportunities materialize to a point that he felt he could pull off the late-braking moves. With the Bottas pass, he showed the Finn how he should have approached Vettel in Bahrain.
Max, on the other hand, seemed to be too excitable and forced the moment trying to create an opportunity where the wasn’t one or where the opportunity hadn’t materialized to a point that he could pull it off.
Red Bull were quick to remind the world that Max is young but Sebastian Vettel, quite measured in his post-race comments given that Max cost him serious points and reduced his lead to Hamilton, said that the youth excuse doesn’t work as Verstappen has been in F1 for three seasons…he has a point.
Hat Tip: Autosport
Good article. He is like an anti-Alonso.
There is only so long “max will be max” can wash. At the end of the day he lost points in Aussie with a mistake, 2 big errors in Bahrain and one against Lewis and Seb each today.
Realistically he should have won today with a bit more patience, and at least a fourth in Bahrain. The extra 30 odd points would put him right in the title hunt.
Max Verstappen May be young, but this is his fourth season in F1, and his third in a front running team. He shouldn’t really be making rookie mistakes at this stage of his career. He didn’t make them in his debut year, so why now?
Could be head gets bigger.
Singing a different tune on the crash kid are we now? What could possibly have changed since Bahrain? :). Double standards at play ;).
No, I still like Max’s aggressiveness and approach. I think Bahrain and China were his mistakes as we said on the podcast but I also said in my post about Bahrain incident that he is still honing the race craft and if he can get it sorted and balanced, he’s a champ in the making. I think his teammate is a good example of that as is Lewis, Alonso and Vettel now. He’s not quite there yet and still forces opportunities that aren’t quite there. There’s a difference between Daniel licking the stamp and sending it as he called it… Read more »
I don’t know. He’s kind of like Marquez (MotoGP) walking the line between deliberately causing accidents and hard racing. Marquez crossed that line this year and Max could be accused of getting dangerously close
I think this is a decent analogy to be honest. Marc is fabulous and brought a lot of energy to MotoGP. He is adored by millions and yet this year, he’s testing the limits of other riders by being on the edge of aggressive and making it work and being aggressive and hampering other riders’ races. I think it is a fine line. I think back to Grosjean and how we reversed his race craft. I think of Vettel running into the back of Webber in Brazil, at Turkey etc. Max was in error in the last two races for… Read more »
If you put a poll out there asking which 1 driver is most like to be involved in an on-track altercation, my money is on Max getting the overwhelming majority of votes. He makes the moves, barely, occasionally, so it’s all good and everyone forgives..until the next time. Keep reading that Max is naturally quick and will get better with time, but you can see his style of passing. It’s consistently a risky and low-percentage style that’s prevalent in Indy Car. I don’t think he can be quick, especially in traffic, without those risky moves. Both of RIC’s passes, on… Read more »
The problem is the crash kid’s standards haven’t changed. but vastly improved in crash consistency.
Like the announcer said: you can’t win at poker when you go all in every hand. The Dutch Dickhead is losing some of his shine with these dangerous moves. Right now he’s only ruining his competitor’s races. Keep this stuff up and he’ll hurt somebody. He should have gotten a much greater time penalty although I don’t know what the rules allow. And btw, he’s been around long enough to know better.
C’mon NC. You have to start using you Maldonado sound bite whenever you mention Max. “ that’s strange, I wonder what’s causing all the accidents?”
The Maxpedo is quite impresive he’s 3 for 3 in taking a possible race winning car and destroying it. Ricardo just brought it home.
Sorry, but I don’t buy the ‘youth’ excuse, ‘youth’ implies inexperience, Max has been driving before he could walk.
He gets the ‘red mist’ like Vettel and all logic goes out the window.
Niki Lauda summed it up pretty well, “Normally, you learn from your mistakes, but it doesn’t work with him. At some point, it’s no longer a question of age, but a matter of intelligence”.
Niki Lauda summed it up nicely, “Normally, you learn from your mistakes, but it doesn’t work with him. At some point, it’s no longer a question of age, but a matter of intelligence”.
Soon, the excuses will wear thin. Someone might want to tell Verstappen that “reckless endangerment” is a state jail felony in Texas before he gets to Austin.