'Verstappen isn't the only one that have done stupid things'

22 July 2020 at 12:00

GPblog.com

Dutch Grand Prix director Jan Lammers reacted coolly to Max Verstappen's fault prior to the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix. In his outlap the eight times Grand Prix winner lost his car on the wet track of the Hungaroring, making participation in the race on Sunday afternoon almost impossible. According to Lammers we shouldn't dwell on it too long and it could happen to the best driver in Formula 1. For Red Bull Racing it's in any case a matter of making full use of the potential of the 2020 car in order to avoid a repetition.

"I don't get emotionally involved in those things, certainly not in the theatrical sense," said a down-to-earth Lammers when asked by GPblog what went through him when Verstappen parked his RB16 in the wall during his outlap. According to the analyst, we shouldn't put the Red Bull driver's action under a magnifying glass either. "Max goes off and that happens to you once, that happens to you a few times in your career. That could be behind the safety car, that could be in the pits, that could be anywhere."

There's a lot more in the RB16

According to Lammers, Verstappen had not lost control of his car as quickly as the full potential of the RB16 had already been unlocked. "If you have a car that is not completely optimal and has not yet been tuned to its potential, you can suddenly go off. In theory it is still a very good car. They just haven't found the potential yet, the car is unpredictable," he explains.

The fact that the 22-year old Limburger then had an excellent start by immediately advancing from seventh to third place is a sign that Verstappen is mentally strong, but according to Lammers the situation was also in his favour. "He is the most open-minded driver on the grid at the time, because all those others are tight on nerves and the performance drive. Valtteri Bottas is behind the wheel there thinking he has to beat Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc wants to put things right with Sebastian Vettel and so on. Everyone has a certain tension, except Max", the former Formula 1 ''driver observes.

Verstappen not the only one

It's not at all strange that Verstappen makes a mistake, it can happen to the best drivers in Formula 1. "We've also seen Senna do things that were inexplicable from the leading position. The greatest possible top athletes can seem stupid, but when you do so much, sometimes something goes wrong", says Lammers, who suspects it won't be the last time we will see Verstappen do something less clever. "It's going to happen a lot, too. A Bottas or a Hamilton have also done stupid, stupid things. Vettel once gave away the lead in Germany by sliding off the track."

Red Bull must search thoroughly

For Red Bull it is now in any case a matter of getting things back in order when they arrive at Silverstone. The Austrian race stable has about ten days to do so after last weekend's Hungarian GP. "With a car that is as in trouble as Red Bull, it is often characteristic that one moment you have one hundred percent grip, while the next moment you don't have that at all. You don't go from 100 to 80, but to 0, and then you're a passenger," continues Lammers. "It's just a good car that's not properly tuned yet. It's looking for a needle in a haystack to see where the leak is."