Stewart tells hothead Max to calm down

SIR JACKIE Stewart has some words of advice for Max Verstappen: ‘Slow down a wee bit.’

The Dutchman, 20, qualified third for today’s Canadian Grand Prix to banish thoughts of his accident-ridden season.

He’ll start behind Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, with Lewis Hamilton only fourth for Mercedes after he locked up on his final lap.

Verstappen’s improved showing came despite signs that the pressure was getting to him. He said to the press he would ‘headbutt somebody’ if the subject of his crashes was brought up again.

After qualifying, Red Bull boss Christian Horner praised Verstappen, to which the driver replied: ‘I suppose it shows I can still drive.’

Stewart, who won three world titles during a career marked by the thoughtfulness of his driving, is a big admirer of Verstappen — but feels he needs to be more circumspect if he is to emulate past greats.

‘He’s a huge talent,’ said Stewart. ‘And out of the car, like a lot of racing drivers, he is calm. He has an abundance of talent and can put in remarkable lap times. But he does that by being on the edge.

‘When you are so close to the edge, you’re going to get caught out and that’s what has happened.

‘If you look at history, the great drivers had very few incidents. Jimmy Clark didn’t, I didn’t, Alain Prost didn’t.

‘Ayrton Senna seldom had incidents, though he was the closest in terms of spirit to Max. He had a desire to be quickest. But to be first you have to finish. Until he calms down, he is going to have the odd glitch. I’d tell him to go a wee bit slower.’

Verstappen pushed Red Bull’s indulgence of him to breaking point in Monaco a fortnight ago, when he crashed out in practice. The indiscretion cost the team a probable one-two and Horner criticised him publicly.

Stewart recalls that his old boss Ken Tyrrell would have given him a ‘massive b ******** g’ in the same circumstances.

Sitting next to the Olympic rowing lake in Montreal yesterday, Stewart invoked the man in whose honour the circuit is named — Gilles Villeneuve, the gung-ho Canadian still revered by many for his sheer devil-may-care speed.

But Villeneuve never won a world title and died during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. He won six races but refused to let the accountancy of sport interfere with the thrill of all-out racing.

‘Gilles was spectacular but seldom finished races,’ said Stewart. ‘Is that what Max wants? He has been lucky in that he hasn’t been hurt.

‘But eventually he’ll not get away with it. I never drew blood in a racing car. I spent my life trying to minimise the danger, on the track and in life.

‘He (Verstappen) has so much ahead of him.’