AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen arrived at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in rare form, having won the last two races to inject some late-season intrigue into the Drivers’ Championship title fight.
But Thursday afternoon in the Red Bull hospitality space Verstappen delivered another masterclass, this time off the track.
In a wide-ranging media session, Verstappen addressed everything from social media trolls, the bumps on the surface of the track here in Austin, Christian Horner’s new book, how the media tends to “agitate” the drivers at times, and yes, even some racing as well.
While Verstappen is coming off a pair of wins, first at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and then the Singapore Grand Prix, he was rather reserved when asked about his chances at winning this weekend in Austin. While Verstappen swept this weekend a year ago, winning both the F1 Sprint race and the United States Grand Prix to truly vault back into title contention, he pointed to teams such as Ferrari that are bringing upgrades to Austin, that could tip the pecking order.
“I mean, there’s still teams bringing upgrades, so we don’t know how much that is giving them, but yeah, from our side we’ll just focus on our job, take it race by race,” said the four-time Drivers’ Champion to the media, including SB Nation, on Thursday. “Of course the last few races have been very positive for us and very happy especially to win in Singapore.
“It was also two race weekends where the conditions were quite extreme. It was very humid, that might also have influence on the engine part. We have to wait [to see] here. It’s very different, very dry.”
Verstappen then shifted his attention to the track surface, which he described as “very bumpy.”
And then continued from there.
“Just see also the track state. From what I saw in WEC, it was extremely badly bumpy, so I’m not really looking forward to that, to be honest, for your spine,” described Verstappen. “You know, I was joking about that of course in the last race, but it’s not really a joke, to be honest, because we’ve mentioned this already for years that it’s actually getting a bit out of control, and I’m sure that tomorrow is going to be quite tough to find the right compromises around this track in places where it’s just extremely bumpy.
“So also that again, I don’t know how our car is going to respond to that.”
Later in his session Verstappen returned to the bumps, all while outlining why the United States Grand Prix remains one of his favorite races on the schedule.
“It’s probably worse [this year under the new regulations] because we have very low ride heights and cornering, because on the streets you have the [Straight Mode], so you go up. So in most places, on the braking especially, you actually bottom more than before,” said Verstappen. “Because most of the bumps are on the breaking or in the corner, not on the actual straight.
“But yeah, it’s very bad, and of course you can use the excuse that the soil is the problem, but then you should have known that, and you need to make sure that you reinforce it more.
“I mean I love this track. I love this place. Like it’s one of the best layouts ever and it’s one of the, I would say, best venues, best city to be at. But for me, the bumps that we have are unacceptable.”
After brushing aside questions about Horner’s new book — “I don’t read books, to be honest” was Verstappen’s main answer, before noting that he enjoyed some “great time” with Horner when he was in charge at Red Bull — Verstappen then turned to one of the brewing media stories of the day. Earlier in the afternoon Isack Hadjar caused a stir when, during the FIA Press Conference, he made the claim that Ferrari had the fastest car in Singapore and that if Verstappen was driving the SF-26, he would have won by an even wider margin.
Moments before Verstappen’s media session, Charles Leclerc held his own in the Ferrari hospitality space, dismissing that claim as “nonsense.” So the question was put to Verstappen.
And he took his answer in a different direction than was expected.
“Fun debate,” deadpanned the Red Bull driver.
“I mean, we’re stressing about something that doesn’t matter. Yeah, he said it, but okay, well let him say that, right? I mean, you shouldn’t always then need to put it forward to the other driver or the other team, like you’re constantly trying to agitate people with it instead of just letting it be. That’s what I normally do.
“I’m like whatever. Yeah, life goes on. Tomorrow is another day.”
Pressed on whether he thought Ferrari was indeed quicker in Singapore, and whether it was just a special qualifying lap that put Verstappen in a position to start up front and hold on for the win, the Red Bull driver shed some light on the mentality that has made him a four-time Drivers’ Champion.
“It was a good quali lap and I never, I’m never gonna say that it’s anything special because it can always be better.”
But Verstappen’s most fascinating comments came when he talked about the aftermath of his weekend in Portimão, where he drove alongside teammates Ben Barnicoat and Chris Lulham in the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing GT3 car at the GT World Challenge Europe season finale.
The team was running inside the top ten, when a penalty during a stint from Lulham dropped the No. 3 down to P24 when Verstappen took the wheel. But he carved through the field, coming all the way up to P9 by the checkered flag.
But after the race, Lulham suffered intense criticism and personal attacks on social media, as it was his collision with Luca Stolz that prompted the drive-through penalty, as race officials judged that the incident was an “avoidable collision.” Verstappen addressed the situation on Instagram in the days after the race, declaring that there is “no place for this kind of behavior in our sport or anywhere else.”
Verstappen again talked about that on Thursday, putting some of the onus on the social media companies themselves.
“No,” began Verstappen when he was asked if enough was being done to curb the social media attacks. “But that starts really from the, the social media companies themselves, where you can make as many troll accounts as well, with no real names or addresses attached to it. And yeah, people can say whatever they like online, and I mean for me personally, I don’t care like if it’s targeted to me.
“I mean they can all F off.
“But when it’s to one of my drivers that is young, right, and is not used to this kind of pressure and attention, and when they start writing these kind of things, it’s quite extreme. And that’s why I felt the need to put that statement out even though of course I’ve talked to him about it and I tried to make sure that he doesn’t really read about it too much.
“And I know his character. I think he is quite relaxed, but it’s still, it’s still not nice and definitely not deserved. Because he’s first of all, just a great guy, he’s of course learning, we’re all learning, we all make mistakes.
“He did such a great job all weekend and then, you know, a tiny little misjudgement, of course, yeah, he gave us a penalty but there’s no need to draw any kind of hate towards him. And I think that’s why it was just very important to make that statement.”
But before the session ended, the bumps were back on the docket.
And the Red Bull driver walked us through what that does to a driver, and their spine, inside the car.
“Well, so last year, for example, you pull around five, six Gs in a corner, but I had some impacts, like vertical load, which was like over nine Gs on my spine, which I can tell you is really not fun. And I, especially the older you get, you think about that more and more,” began Verstappen.
“Yeah, that’s not what you want. And with these cars, especially on the braking, you bottom out way harder because when the wings close and then the right hand comes down under braking, it’s like actually a very stressful moment, and I know around here in some places it’s very bumpy under braking.
“So yeah, it’s really not nice, and that’s I think sometimes people don’t really understand that because. I can tell you from the checks that I’ve done for my spine, the bottom end doesn’t look that great, the spine.
“So I know that’s part of racing. I know that can be part of sport, but it’s of course also further damage from the cars that we had in the last few years. And now if we continue with or finding it acceptable to drive on. Then yeah, you are going to suffer with that much more,” continued Verstappen. “People can say ‘yeah, but you know there are worse sports out there for damage to parts of your body.’
“For sure.
“But that’s why I’m not doing them.”
And with that the session, a media masterclass, came to an end.
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