Verstappen says he won’t change his driving style

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Max Verstappen denies he will change his approach to racing despite criticism from Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, while other F1 drivers have endorsed his approach.

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Massa’s dignity in 2008 defeat won him many admirers
Marcelo reflects on the news of Felipe Massa’s retirement from Formula One:

It’s a sad day for Brazilian motorsport. I know that Massa was never able to reenact the golden days for Brazil in F1 (which are long gone now), but he, just like Barrichello, had his talent and was able to promote Brazilian motorsport, having a successful, decent career with several GP wins, and having driven for top teams. Next year could be the first in many, many years where there’s no Brazilian in a relevant position in F1, or worse, none at all (given that Nasr isn’t guaranteed anywhere).

I confess that, in recent times Massa was not giving us Brazilians a lot of joy, but he was responsible for many emotional moments, and for that I am truly grateful to him. Two stand out for me personally, his first win in Brazil in 2006, reenacting Senna on home turf, and Brazil 2008 again, where I experienced the ultimate heart break, but he was so gracious in defeat, that made me even prouder. Many Brazilians don’t regard him or Barrichello highly given that they were not champions, but the problem was that our bar was always so high after the likes of Fittipaldi, Piquet and Senna, it was always going to be unfair to them, but I truly respect both, and in that way, Massa was the closest thing we had to a champion after Senna (for at least 30 seconds).

Now that I am recalling those moments, I am a bit sad, but also thankful, and inspired by how the sport can touch us and make us emotional. That’s why I love F1, always have, and always will, because we can be inspired by drivers that put their heart out and give everything they have to win races. Massa, in his good days, was one good example, and I thank him for all the good memories, specially those two that I will certainly remember for the rest of my life.
Marcelo

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On this day in F1

Juan Manuel Fangio won his fourth world championship title on this day 60 years ago after team mate Peter Collins, who was also in contention for the championship, gave up his car to Fangio during the Italian Grand Prix.

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71 comments on “Verstappen says he won’t change his driving style”

  1. “I will not change my driving style” , thats the same thing maldonado used to say, remember ?
    Now Maxdonado is saying it to.

    1. Maldonado broke rules and received sanctions though. Smashing into drivers on corner entry, cutting corners and t-boning drivers though. It’s a world apart from pushing right to the limit and ruffling feathers by not being afraid of being ruthless like Verstappen has.

      1. Pushing to the limit, not being afraid, ruthless hahaha you make sound like some kind of hero but he is not. He looks to me like another Maldonado only with a faster car then Maldoado ever had.

      2. Offcorse Maldonado was never a FIA favourite like MAx is… he brings in viewers and fans… so let the boy race they say… Accidents can be sorted later.

      3. I think the point juanga was trying to make was that Max seems unable to accept mistakes and therefore, unable to learn from them. He has Maldonado’s attitude, which will not make him particularly popular on and off the track.

        1. He is not there to be popular. He is there to become world champion. Racing is in his DNA.

      4. “Maldonado broke rules and received sanctions though. Smashing into drivers on corner entry, cutting corners and t-boning drivers though.”

        On the opening lap in Spa Max did two of the things you listed there…

        1. @geemac then what did VET apologise to RAI for concerning the Spa opening lap?

        2. Interesting.. two Ferraris collide and VES was the one with the most damage.. Vet made a mistake and eveyone with some F1 insight would have noticed it.
          Ves did nothing wrong there!
          ( and as regarding his move on Rak i follow Alonso)

    2. I’m amazed how grumpy everyone is about a passionate and exciting driver like Max. With all the prevalent problems in F1 at the moment, here is a driver that is bringing me back to the sport.

      Sure, he takes risks, but all the great champions did. And he has a long time to mature – we’re discussing what a great chap Massa , but he was the Maldonado of the early 00’s…

    3. Maldonado was crashing because coudn’t drive sometimes and he made driving errors; Max chooses to block; according to the rule book, it is legal. According to the “gentleman’s understanding” between drivers it is not.
      It is up to Max to chose what kind of driver he wants to be.

      1. Exactly. Apparently the stewards can penalise “unsportsmanlike” behavior though. So technically it is something the stewards could deal with if the feel the need to.

    4. If we had proper racing that wasn’t ruined by all of these stupid rules, degrading tires, DRS and inconsistencies of stewards we wouldn’t have to spend so much time talking about a hot headed defiant teenager.

  2. That helmet by Max Chilton is a great design.

  3. People seriously need to stop comparing Maldonado and Verstappen.

    The only similarity they have is that they both have a single win in Spain. Beyond that, it’s all rubbish. Maldonado caused wreckless collisions left, right, front, back, over, and under, from the start of his career, even well before F1. He was a fast paydriver that had little racecraft or regard for racing. Verstappen on the other hand, is a young driver who has got into his position through being talented and successful (and lucky, just like every F1 driver), and has already proven he has what it takes to be a top driver. He might not change his driving style immediately but it will improve with time. And after all, why should he? It’s got him to where he is now. It’s not perfect but as I said it will no doubt get better as he matures.

    1. Maldonado was gp2 champion: the caricature people made of him became so captivating that people forget he was a proper driver.

      1. Champion in his 4th season in GP2, that is. Same league as Joylon Palmer to name someone.

    2. max has some time to repeat Maldonado`s record… big mouth, small brains…

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      2nd September 2016, 12:02

      There are differences but the big similarity for me is that they don’t care about the safety of others on the track. Risking your own life is one thing but risking the lives of others is something that tends to create a reaction. That is something that Maldonado and Verstappen both have a record of doing…

      1. Another similarity – Maldonado was upset with what Hamilton had done to him at Spa and then tried to force him off the road, Verstappen was upset with what Raikkonnen had done to him at Spa and then tried to force him of the road. Of course the difference is that the former denied it but got a penalty, while the latter shouted it over the radio but did not.

  4. F1’s become a sport where very incident on track needs to be investigated to find who was guilty. Why can’t it be a racing incident and that’s that? good job they didn’t investigate the turn 1 incident at Spa last sunday. And I’m glad some drivers are not complaining about it as much as the “victims” of such incidents (who’ll always look somewhere else to put the blame).

    What I don’t understand it’s what’s happened to Vettel. For the past 2 seasons, it’s like all he wants on a racing track is people moving away from him, letting him by or something. Or he turns into a corner like there’s no one alongside. And then he moans and whines… and then he gets to go to a special meeting with Charlie Whiting to comment on Max Verstappen.

    1. You have to remember @fer-no65 that for 4 years Seb was always allowed to push his teammate of the track, old habits are hard to break.

      1. When did that happened?

    2. @fer-no65 Every incident should be investigated. You forgot that “No further action are warranted” is a possible outcome. Many people is confused why the 3 obvious incident (1st turn, Max-Kimi, Alonso-Hulk) is not even investigated at all, which led to many people questioning the stewards if they do their job at all.

      1. @sonicslv +1. I am not arguing for a penalty for his turn 1 incident nor his Kemmel move. But Perez overtook him while running off the track and kept his place while Kimi was bullied out of the track by the same person.

        The stewards didn’t even open an investigation into it. So what is right when it comes to Max?

        Like you said, ‘no further action warranted’ (with a proper explanation post race) could have been displayed if they found it to be right.

        1. Evered7, in the case of Verstappen and Perez, the onboard footage suggests that was because Verstappen actually ran Perez off the road. If you look at the onboard footage, you can see that Verstappen goes over the white lines marking the track limits and cuts across the inside of the left hand corner at Les Combes whilst trying to defend against Perez, effectively giving Perez no option but to drive off track himself.

          1. Cool. Why no penalty like they were eager to apply for Rosberg? That is where the problem is. Right now, Max can do no wrong according to the stewards.

          2. Well with Kimi, Kimi get to the corner first and Max brakes late (ends up not making the corner) – Kimi tries to turn in and touches Max so is forced off the circuit. Max does not make the corner himself. Kimi told to give the position back. I am just failing to understand the logic of your explanation above as it sound exactly the same….

          3. to me the problem was more with the (overly disruptive) penalty that Rosberg got than with the treatment of these incidents @evered7. I found it quite refreshing to have a race were we did not have investigations popping up all over the place for minor things (while others happened too but did not get noticed by the stewards), just as @fer-no65 mentions.

            We don’t need to always have an investigation (although I do agree that having an investigation that ends with “no further action taken” is quite ok with me too, as @sonicslv points out)

      2. ColdFly F1 (@)
        2nd September 2016, 6:33

        I do not agree, it should not become a ‘nanny state’ sport. @sonicslv
        More important than investigating every time drivers get close on track is to be consistent ‘when’ they investigate, and consistent ‘outcomes/penalties’.
        Also if investigating everything then there will not be enough space on screen for the ‘under investigation’ messages.

        PS – the Max-Kimi event (the Kemmel Straight part) was not even an incident. I believe ‘incidents’ are defined as either a touch between cars, a crash, or breaking of sporting rules.

        1. @coldfly Investigating doesn’t mean it becoming nanny sport. It means they take a closer look of a situation where possibly someone breaking the rules, an the result of investigation itself could clear the said person of not breaking any rule. And when investigating message is too much, we know we have chaotic race instead of normal procedural one, which actually kinda pleasing nowadays ;)

          On Max-Kimi, when a driver openly shows that he not pleased at a driver action, I think it’s warranted to be investigated. I believe anyone (team or driver by proxy of team) can complain to the stewards about anything (reasonable) and its their duty to investigate it, you don’t need any contact on cars to do that.

          1. ColdFly F1 (@)
            2nd September 2016, 8:23

            On Max-Kimi, when a driver openly shows that he not pleased at a driver action, I think it’s warranted to be investigated.

            Give each team 2 ‘video ref’ opportunities. @sonicslv

    3. He has always been doing that. But when he had the fastest car and was in the lead by a mile, there was no need to complain.

  5. Hope he gets wings clipped before there is a major high speed incident, he is totally reckless and apart from his own safety there is the safety of the other drivers.

    1. Sadly, it’ll happen. Then all this Max-praising will stop – and they’ll see him for the petulant child he is.

      1. Eh… I can’t remember reading a lot of Max-praising last week. Only Max-bashing!

        1. Bashing VES or other commenters, it seems to me they are the ones acting immature tbh.

  6. I’ve always loved hard charging aggressive drivers. From Jacques Villenueve to Juan Montoya to a youngish Alonso, I’ve enjoyed all their on and off track antics.

    Theoretically, when Lewis came on the scene, I should have loved him, but quite opposite was true. For some reason, his attitude didn’t strike a chord with me. Now, its the same with Max. Each to his own I suppose.

  7. It was very emotional of the COTD. Which kind of reminds me of my first F1 car model – Turkish GP winner F2008. Now I have more than 100 of my collection, but still, love his F2008 the most. It’s hard to say goodbye to Felipe. Wish him the best.

    1. F2008 is definitely one of my favourite cars, it looked so aggressive with those swept wings just in front of the driver (i even preferred the version with the added ‘shark fin’ engine cover). I have a few 1:18 scale models myself but no F2008. Have you seen the Amalgam F2008? It’s just incredible.

      F1 will seem a bit odd without Massa, as it will when the likes of Button and Alonso call it a day.

  8. Top marks to Nigell Roebuck, I wont bore you any further other than to stress that a lot of what Max M was up to was about reducing costs for teams so Bernie could keep skimming 50% of the top, after all that’s what friends are for.

    1. @hohum, I’m not surprised that you would give top marks to an article that quite clearly panders to your generation…

  9. Some peoples kids!

  10. Im with Kimi next time verstappen does one of his stupid late block moves someone should just wreck him

    1. So you say that someone has to crash into him on purpose?

      1. Not crash into him, just not do their absolute best to avoid Max when he drives into their path. I can’t imagine we’ll see it in F1 but if I were Kimi I’d definitely be giving him a wheel to wheel kiss when I do go past him.

    2. Arnoud van Houwelingen
      2nd September 2016, 12:00

      and who is that someone? cause that someone is ruining his own race .. in which world are u living .. will not happen!

  11. ColdFly F1 (@)
    2nd September 2016, 6:23

    And the winner today is ………..
    …..Romain Grosjean
    (for the 1st non-Verstappen story today)

  12. I don’t think that I would have wanted Felipe as a father. Not knowing the man personally, that may sound arbitrary, but think on it for a moment. Who would want a father who is away for half the year? Who would want a father that constantly talks about being F1 world champion for 40 seconds? Who would want a father that falls off form every time his job is threatened? Who would want a father that constantly repeats himself, like Felipe does about that time he was an F1 world champion for 40 seconds?

    Note: This post is tongue-in-cheek, obviously. Please don’t moan about it. And I’m mentioning that because every cheeky post made on this website is inevitably taken seriously. Please don’t moan about that either.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      2nd September 2016, 7:40

      I’d love to have Massa as my father!
      He would let me race against that guy with the big smile who drinks from his shoe.

    2. @bforth Continuing your wondering, actually I don’t want his father to be my grandfather more than Massa is my father. A grandfather who seems put heavy pressure on your father, exaggerating your father accomplishment, and never think your father ever done wrong? Oh wait, I think I know where Massa got his attitude from.

      Note: this also tongue in cheek post, based on my limited knowledge of him on camera. Real personality might or might not be totally different ;)

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        2nd September 2016, 8:29

        Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

    3. Well, having Massa as a dad would allow you to race Ricciardo in toy karts.

  13. Given how split reaction from fans, drivers and media has been, with no real consensus on Max’s defending in Spa, it makes me really surprised the stewards didn’t even flag up the incident as worthy of investigating!

    Whether they ultimately went for penalty or no further action, I’m just puzzled that a move so open to interpretation wasn’t highlighted.

    1. there is/was nothing to investigate. max did i following the rules

      ===It was very late and maybe he didn’t judge where Kimi was, but Kimi was still behind. The rule, as written, is still good.”

      Article 27.7 of the sporting regulations states: “Any driver defending his position on a straight, and before any braking area, may use the full width of the track during his first move, provided no significant portion of the car attempting to pass is alongside his.===

  14. Well I don’t want Max to change his racing style either as it’s phenomenal! Same move can make you a hero or zero and that’s what happened. All I feel is that he needs to tone down the aggression on track (not off it..as we’ll love it!) as this new generation is what I call the ‘video game’ generation who, in this era of lower risk, bigger run offs and safer cockpits they feel safer and don’t rightfully judge the risk they’re putting themselves and others into.

    He never broke the WRITTEN rules but there is always an unwritten code of conduct in racing that every racer must abide by and Max broke that code (which has resulted in outrage) and so did Michael and Ayrton and many other greats and not so greats during their times.

  15. I wonder how many drivers will start using the Max defence now.

    If it is indeed legal to wait until the car behind begins to execute a passing manoeuvre and then rapidly chop that line off, we’re in for some interesting times.

    Teams will need to be bringing a bucketload of front wings with them from now on.

    1. Well, I guess we’ll finally see a lot of racing action… No more gentle I’ll-move-out-of-the-way passes, which is killing the sport since DRS.

  16. BTW I also enjoyed the football game between F1 drivers and football players! I know it was a charity event for the recent earthquake but F1 needs to organise such games/events at every GP at the track which would really be enjoyable and attract some more fans!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbhlvCpEoag

    1. That surely made me laugh.

  17. Beware of The Great Avenger!
    Now we have another driver who always has right, never makes mistakes and avenges every move he doesn’t like. Unbelievable!

  18. Max WILL change his driving style or he’ll be disqualified sooner or later, or worse, he will cause a serious accident. Being aggressive is one thing, but being dangerous and not caring about it is something else. He does not have and has not earned the right to be so arrogant.

    You can’t just drive a certain way and expect everyone to not overtake you because they’re scared you might put their life at risk. I actually liked the guy, but more recently I find him to be just arrogant and immature, though he’s still undoubtedly talented as well.

    1. From his standpoint, his style hasn’t changed and the lack of even an investigation of anything, let alone penalty, only means to Max there is no reason to change.

    2. Arnoud van Houwelingen
      2nd September 2016, 23:59

      what has his defending to do with arrogance. To make it difficult for your opponent should be applauded. They all should drive on the limit of what is allowed. A lot of drivers defended Max today and said he did nothing wrong in Spa

  19. Max had a meeting with Charlie Whiting earlier today & was told that if he does what he did at Spa again he will get a penalty.

    Charlie also feels that Max should have got a black & white flag for the move at Spa.

    1. Interesting then that Charlie didn’t instigate a post-race investigation and push for a penalty then. However, I suppose Max can’t still claim that the lack of investigation or penalty means his driving was fine.

  20. This is the kind of accident Verstappen will soon create: https://www.facebook.com/grandprix24/videos/1161582257236586/

    1. It’s funny to see that most drivers took a rational approach and with respect found a way to let Max know that it might be time to change stuff (Charlie Whiting had a chat with him). Not play it personal. And the fans are mostly just insulting him, making ridiculous arguments and saying really, really dumb things in general, to the point that you wonder if they have ever seen a race before last weekend. Or just defending him to the point were all logic is thrown out of the window.

    2. oh sorry, that wasn’t a reply. It was supposed to go into the general comment.

  21. We can move on from the VES topic. The outcome is that opinions differ. So there is no black or white clear judgement. In a case where there is no real single outcome the person involved should always stick to whatever he/she was doing

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