Doornbos sees critical Verstappen: 'He pointed out a crucial mistake of the team'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
At Monza, it was not Lewis Hamilton who could take the win. Valtteri Bottas did not succeed either. Where was Max Verstappen then?' Robert Doornbos asks himself aloud. Red Bull Racing was not as competitive at Monza as previous years. The former F1-driver reads more behind the statement that Verstappen gave afterwards.
Red Bull less competitive than in 2019
In his video column Doornbos analyses what happened to Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing in the race at the Italian Monza circuit. The Italian GP has never been the team's favourite because of the required engine power, but this weekend they were very disappointing: "They always want to limit the damage here. But last year they were more competitive than this year".
The qualification of Verstappen (P5) was not good and neither was the start of the race. The Dutchman had to compete against Daniel Ricciardo's Renault in the first corner. After the restart that followed the red flag the car of Verstappen turned out to be defective. He made a striking statement about this in front of the camera of Ziggo Sport.
Verstappen very critical on his own team
"There was a lot of swearing in front of the camera, but in the end you heard something you can interpret in different ways", refers Doornbos to Verstappen's remark that the Red Bull of 2019 was actually not so bad.
"Either he's saying this because Pierre Gasly has just won with that car, that's about a Red Bull 2019, or, and that's my point of view, he tries to say the team that they made such a crucial mistake during the winter months with the base of this car".
The Ziggo analyst states and concludes: "They're not getting that right now either. Because during the weekend, with all kinds of set up changes, they always drive the same lap time. So there are balance problems on the chassis and for Honda there is also some work to be done".