F1 News
Steiner fears 'difficult to manage' Verstappen for Red Bull
Red Bull Racing admitted that the winter test in Bahrain did not go entirely as expected, with Max Verstappen also pointing out that there was still work to be done for his team. According to former Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner, the Dutch driver could become 'difficult to manage' should the team not start the new season with a competitive car.
Steiner warns: 'An unhappy Max is not a nice Max'
Speaking to CNN, Steiner was asked how he thinks Verstappen will react if the season start does not go to plan. “I would say last year, when he started not to win, he reacted, pretty aggressively,” Steiner replied. "But then at some stage, I think he realised, ‘I need to be smart about this and just take home as many points as I can, even if I’m not winning a race’.”
He continued, "We need to see which Max we get. For sure, if he hasn’t got a good car where he can win, he will get very difficult to manage. He will be very vocal about it if he’s not happy. An unhappy Max is not a nice Max, as we all know. But he is a very good driver, I think the best at the moment. For sure he will put his effort in to win races and win the championship again, but it will not be easy as we saw last year.
The former Haas F1 team boss was also asked what he would advise Verstappen in his hunt for a fifth world title. "To stay calm, but don’t throw the toys out of the pram after two races if it doesn’t go your way. If it is not in our way, in the beginning of the season, we need to work hard to get back where we want to be’," he explained.
"Getting impatient and complaining doesn’t help a team, doesn’t put the team together, and obviously that is what you need when you’re not competitive. But first of all, I would say, ‘just let’s wait to see where we are at and then we see where we want to go, and where we can go’," Steiner concludes.
Work to do for Red Bull
Verstappen was clear after the winter test that while it did not go badly, there is definitely still work to be done for Red Bull. He therefore does not expect his team to be the fastest at the opening race, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. However, the four-time world champion did stress that it is difficult to compare Red Bull's pace with that of other teams based on the winter test, given the many unknown factors.
Technical director Pierre Waché admitted that Red Bull had different expectations from the winter test. He indicated that the progress made was less than the team had hoped, and also acknowledged that the test days were not flawless. He was therefore not entirely satisfied, but at the same time stressed that it was important to find problems at this stage and not once when the season is underway.
This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder.
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