Red Bull chief backs Verstappen to bounce back
Max Verstappen may sometimes appear impervious to criticism but Red Bull Racing technical head Adrian Newey says Formula One’s youngest race winner has been doing some soul-searching as the mistakes mount up.
Verstappen, 20, has stood on the podium only once in the six races so far this season and has had two retirements – while Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo has won twice.
The Red Bull driver has also drawn plenty of comment and criticism for his errors that has meant he heads to this weekend’s seventh round of the 2018 F1 season in Canada in desperate need of a good result.
“We’re all human,” Briton Newey said at a Motorsport Hall of Fame event. “He can try and shrug off everybody else’s comments and opinions but when you’ve had a run like that, you question yourself a bit.
“Of course you do. But I think he’s tough enough that he’ll come through that,” added Newey. “He’s had one of those bad runs. He’s a great driver, he’s very quick and at some point he’ll shed that [poor sequence] again and be on his way,” he said.
“Part of being a racing driver is learning from your mistakes and I think he’s bright enough to do that.”
Former world champion Nico Rosberg said in Monaco last month, where Verstappen crashed in final practice and lined up last, that he had not seemed to learn at all despite being in his fourth season.
“At the moment everything is going wrong for him but I don’t have much hope for him anymore,” added the German.
Team principal Christian Horner said after the Monaco crash that Verstappen knew he had to cut out the mistakes.
“He needs to learn from it, and stop making these errors. He knows that more than anybody,” said Horner.
“For the whole team to only be running one-legged with such a strong car is frustrating.”
Verstappen finished third in Spain last month but retired in Azerbaijan after a collision with Ricciardo. In China he tangled with Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, ending up fifth.
He also collided with Hamilton in Bahrain and retired, while in Australia he spun and finished sixth after starting fourth.
Verstappen, who has a longterm contract, will be Red Bull’s main hope at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, with Ricciardo facing at least a 10-place grid penalty due to power unit usage.
Ricciardo lost power during the Monaco race but the pole-sitter managed to hold his own with overtaking difficult on the narrow streets.
Some sources said the power unit could be salvageable, but Newey confirmed that will not be the case. Newey said Ricciardo, who took his second complete power unit at the Chinese GP, will “definitely be taking some penalties in Montreal, we haven’t heard at the moment just how many.”
While Montreal has long straights which is likely to put the Red Bull car at a disadvantage to Mercedes and Ferrari, the medium to low speed corners should be much more to their liking.