F1 News
Verstappen reveals how he overcame F1 low point in 2018
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Seven-time Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen has explained how he overcame the incredibly difficult start he had to the 2018 season, as the Dutchman was at his lowest point in Formula 1 after a crash in FP3 in Monaco.
It seems like an eternity ago, with the form Verstappen has been in since that infamous FP3 crash in Monaco. He hasn't been beaten by a teammate in a race since that weekend, and he's won four races since.
Many think the 21-year-old is the best driver in the world right now, but just over a year ago, the tables were completely turned. Nearly every race weekend of the first six Grands Prix, he'd have some sort of spin or accident, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo was competing at the very top.
In Monaco, the circuit which suited the RB14 the most and the place where the Red Bulls were sure to get a one-two, Verstappen threw the entire weekend away in FP3. Coming out of the swimming pool section, he rode the kerb a bit too hard and flung his car into the barriers. It wasn't repaired on time for qualifying, he started at the back and threw away a potential win.
"I think it's little margins that can go really wrong or really well," Verstappen reflected a year later in an interview with Motor Sport Magazine.
"But you always learn from your mistakes and I definitely did - but to say that I completely changed the approach was not true. It was just fine-tuning a few things that make the end result of the whole weekend a lot better.
"Just learning, adapting, trying to get better. I don't think I tried to driver harder or faster. Maybe I just took it back a bit and that's made me go faster. I was maybe trying too hard?"
After the FP3 crash, a moment in which he probably was trying to hard as he was battling Ricciardo for P1 in Free Practice, Verstappen learned to be aggressive, but not all the time.
"It's about picking your moments when to push and when not to. Then learn from your errors. Sometimes it's good to make mistakes because you need to feel it first before you start to change things.
"Also, you have to remember that my progress was so fast, with only a year in F3 between karts and F1. I guess some of the mistakes I made in F1, others made in lower categories where there's not much media around. I prefer to make them in F1 than staying in lower categories."