It could have been much worse for Max Verstappen this Sunday at Silverstone. The Dutchman managed to bring an injured Red Bull back to 7th place.
He only concedes 6 points this Sunday on Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in the standings: not so bad with hindsight.
But what happened to make Max Verstappen suddenly lose his rhythm? The Red Bull driver explains.
“The start was still good, but of course I was pushed, so I had to take my foot off the accelerator a bit. For the rest, the speed was good and I was getting closer and closer to Carlos. It’s just hard to follow here. »
“Then Carlos made a mistake, I passed him and a few corners later, in the fifth, there was a piece of carbon. »
Max Verstappen quickly returned to the pits, believing he had a flat tire. But in reality the damage was deeper, at the level of the flat bottom.
“When I saw him, I couldn’t go left or right. This completely tore the bottom of the left side of the floor. When you’re driving and you feel like you’ve lost your balance, you lose a lot of lap time. »
“When I came out of the pits I looked under the floor and it was all gone. With those cars where the floor is obviously the most important thing aerodynamically, you lose a lot of downforce in that case of course. »
“From one lap to the next, I lost a second and a half, two seconds per lap. It stayed that way throughout the race. It’s very tricky, especially on the left side of the car. And in the fast corners that go flat out. But of course, on this circuit, you have a lot of fast corners. »
At least Max Verstappen is saving the furniture this Sunday! He will also have railed against Red Bull’s choice to bring him out on hard tyres.
“It wasn’t good, but in the end I managed to score some points. If you already have damage and you don’t have a good balance in the car, and then you have these hard tires, you have very little grip in the end. It took me a few turns to get them to work. »
Max Verstappen thanks the halo…
The championship leader could not conclude his speech without thanking the FIA for introducing the halo, which may have saved Guanyu Zhou’s head this Sunday.
“It’s important that Zhou, Alex and everyone are okay. I think only Alex is still in the hospital to be examined. Let’s wait and see what they say, hopefully all is well. »
“It was very scary. Normally, when you start and immediately see a red flag, you know something serious is going on. This Sunday showed once again that the halo has its place in Formula 1.”