Max Verstappen described the conditions in the Turkish Grand Prix as “super-frustrating” after he fell from a race-leading position to finish sixth.
The Red Bull driver was running third when he spun while trying to overtake Sergio Perez. That forced him to make an extra pit stop, and he spun again while running behind Alexander Albon. He eventually passed his team mate, but still finished outside the top five.“It’s just very frustrating, to be honest,” he said after the race. “I tried to follow Checo through that kink and then suddenly I just massively washed out.
“You get onto the green bit, big spin, trying to keep it out of the wall of course, flatted-spotted the tyres.”
The very low grip conditions made it difficult to overtake, said Verstappen. “After that of course you can very quickly catch up with the guys but you can’t pass. It’s just one line around here and already that line is very slippery. So it’s super-frustrating, we were just waiting for people to pit or whatever.”
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The cool temperatures and lack of grip meant the track dried out too slowly for anyone to use slick tyres.
“The track was not really drying,” said Verstappen, “you had to keep going on intermediates. But at one point when you start wearing the rubber off the intermediates, it becomes like you’re just like sliding over that rubber everywhere.
“So it was really, really difficult. Basically just following no grip, trying to survive, so definitely not a great day. Hopefully we will never be in this situation again that is so slippery.”
Verstappen avoiding a penalty following an investigation by the stewards into whether he crossed the pit lane exit line while rejoining the track. They decided to take no action against the Red Bull driver after “reviewing video evidence from a wide variety of cameras and angles at the highest resolutions available” and being “unable to find conclusive evidence that demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that any part of car 33 crossed completely over the white line separating the pit exit from the track.”
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2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
OOliver
15th November 2020, 15:29
Oh Max!!! That was so so so close to a win for either he or Albon. I’m just surprised neither of the Redbull drivers won today’s race. Hamilton really had no business being on the podium even less so winning the race.
minnis (@minnis)
15th November 2020, 15:44
I’m sorry, what?! Hamilton didnt luck into this, he was the class of the field today, especially in the latter stages. He had every business being on the top step.
OOliver
15th November 2020, 15:48
No one said he lucked into it, I said other drivers didn’t take advantage of the opportunities thrown at them.
PB
15th November 2020, 16:05
In other words the driver made the difference?
Gigantor (@kbdavies)
15th November 2020, 17:38
Lol! They can’t admit that. 😂😂
mystic one (@mysticus)
15th November 2020, 18:28
No it was the car, the weather, the butterflies flapping and creating chain reactions to suit hamilton… like dr house said once “it is never lupus”, it is ironically rhyming, ” it is never lewis” :) i have another idea, it is the hidden/ghost ninja who was kicking people of track left and right…
mystic one (@mysticus)
15th November 2020, 18:28
in case some people misses the reference, here is the last reference..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGaUD3hrp6A
medman
17th November 2020, 23:23
Hamilton is the best driver in the wet or in the dry. He has shown that consistently over many years. Max still makes ridiculous mistakes, mostly due to his aggression. He had no business being that close to Perez through that corner. The nose of the Red Bull was at the gearbox of the Racing Point. He had no chance of controlling the car through that corner. Also, what if Perez has stumbled in that corner? Max would have run right through, destroying both their races and cars in the process. His own aggression at the wrong spot on track led to his spin. Lewis, comparatively, drove his race, let the track come to him, waited for his opportunity, then smashed the rest of the field of world class driving talents, as has become the norm for him. Everybody else was struggling mightily all day, while Lewis struggled early, then made the most of the conditions in a way the rest of the competition didn’t, with the exception of Sergio Perez. He also drove masterfully on older tires.
Hamilton hasn’t made a significant on track mistake in many years. His consistency, excellence, talent, and team mean to beat him you must be near flawless over the course of a season, and hope and pray to upset him emotionally or have Mercedes as a team feel the pressure. There is no combination of team and driver in F1 capable of that, and the prospects of that being the case next year and slim to none.
Edvaldo
15th November 2020, 15:32
That’s what they get relying solely on one driver. Easily the fastest car of the weekend but the boys blew every opportunity on difficult conditions.
Huge letdown for Red Bull to not even get a podium after leading all sessions, apart from Q3, with such ease.
F1oSaurus (@)
15th November 2020, 15:48
Albon could have won this race too. He wasn’t that far off from Verstappen and actually right behind Perez when he also bottled it.
Dave
15th November 2020, 15:38
Silverstone 2019 never gets enough of him.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
15th November 2020, 15:42
This pedant has shown once again that he is an overrated driver, a bullfighter on the tracks who only with his unsportsmanlike maneuvers manages to overtake drivers much better than him.
The press keeps promoting it in an obscene way because it gives them money. This is the “business” of the most important category of motorsport …
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
15th November 2020, 15:47
Someone should lay off the salt for a while
t1cee
15th November 2020, 16:21
I agree, it’s simple, Max you are NOT as good as you think you are
Dave
15th November 2020, 16:31
Can someone please tell me they’ve betrayed Max after the insult at Portugal?
GtisBetter (@)
15th November 2020, 18:42
Lol. You are hilarious. Happy times in your fantasy world.
Josh (@canadianjosh)
15th November 2020, 15:43
Albon is a choke artist at this point
Yaru (@yaru)
15th November 2020, 16:01
Given the conditions, I think he did okay.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
15th November 2020, 16:06
everyone made at least a mistake today including perez and hamilton.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
15th November 2020, 16:07
hmm maybe not vettel tho surprisingly
Applebook
16th November 2020, 0:11
Neither guy spun around.
AMG44 (@amg44)
15th November 2020, 16:06
Young Max is similar to Lewis of 2007-2011. Ultra-fast but impatient and lacking experience. Today’s result shows that he has a way to go to become the best driver on the grid.
Tom
15th November 2020, 16:19
+1 I was just about to write that myself.
I’ve been a fan of Hamilton since his GP2 days and Verstappen reminds me so much of Hamilton in his early years. Being a fan used to be so frustrating because while the pace was there, I’d always be expecting him to make a silly mistake which cost him a great result. It was almost an attitude of having to show just how much better he is than anyone else rather than just driving the car and building up the results. This is exactly how I feel about Verstappen currently. While I’m not a big Max fan I’m always expecting him to crash rather than control the race.
It was extremely easy to make a mistake out there today so I won’t be hard on any driver, but it’s days like today which reinforce my opinion that Verstappen has got a long way to go before becoming a true WDC contender. He can win and dominate multiple races in a season, but in a tight Championship battle I just don’t think he has what it takes just yet.
AMG44 (@amg44)
15th November 2020, 16:42
I agree. Max and Charles are extremely fast and talented drivers. But both made costly errors today which prevented them from getting a better result. Hamilton on the other hand might be a tenth or two slower than both of them on sheer pace (due to age) but doesn’t make mistakes and maximize his results.
I think even Hamilton’s biggest fans didn’t expect a win today after the struggles of Friday and Saturday but he delivered and proving once again to everyone why he is the best most complete driver on the grid today.
David BR (@david-br)
15th November 2020, 16:56
@amg44
Though I still see some journalists using that phrase for Alonso (despite not even being back in F1 yet!), an idea they don’t appear to have updated since 2005/06. Basically like they’re still using Windows XP. Which to be fair, they probably still are.
GtisBetter (@)
15th November 2020, 18:43
Max and Charles take greater risk, cause they are in it for the win of the day and not the championship. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. They really shouldn’t change it this season.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
15th November 2020, 19:16
I also agree with this. Max is very fast and he’s going to get better. But a lot of people including the media behave like he’s on a level with the best already. Today demonstrates that he clearly is not…yet. He needs to cope with frustration and be more patient.
Personally I don’t think there is much to choose between Max and Charles. The first to be WDC will be the one who gets the best car first.
Aiii (@)
15th November 2020, 17:15
I don’t fully agree with this. Ultimately, what Max is saying is correct. There was no real chance of overtaking, so when Perez made a mistake, he had a chance for an overtake and while it ultimately didn’t work out, he felt he had to go for it in that moment. Similarly for Charles at the end of the race.
The difference between them and Lewis in this race isn’t age or experience, it was stakes. Lewis was just out there to finish the race and become champion, the race win was an added bonus, he was never aiming for the race win, just a good position well ahead of Bottas (who was a non-factor anyways, but that’s besides the point). Max was there for a race win. Not a podium in third, but a win. So he went for a do or die move, and it ended up not working for him. At the end of the day, all it cost him was a podium in a year where he doesn’t really have much else to do, and I doubt it’s gonna be much of a bother for him in that regard. He’ll be annoyed at losing a race win, not at losing third position.
Now if this was a season where a non-finish mattered, where it would have cost him a WDC, that was another story. But given that he doesn’t get many chances at even a single race win, I can’t say I disagree with attempting the move on a Perez that just made an error, who knows if that opportunity would come again and if it did, if it would come in time for that race win to not be fully out of grasp.
john (@spactus)
15th November 2020, 18:36
what are saying is with no pressure of a championship Max, choked a gimme pole, choke the start, and did a dive bomb on a slippery track that predictably turned out bad,,, but if he had real pressure he would have performed better…RIGHT
Aiii (@)
15th November 2020, 20:58
No, you almost got there, but not quite.
Applebook
16th November 2020, 0:13
Good points. Completely debunked him.
anon
15th November 2020, 22:08
@aiii did he have to go for the move when he did though?
As soon as he started trying to go up the inside of Perez at Turn 11, the commentators were going “it’s going to go wrong”. He was trying to take a quite tight line on the wetter part of the track, and Perez was always going to move across as he had enough of a gap to Max to do so – so, even if Max hadn’t spun, at the very least he was likely to have lost his momentum and cost himself time because he’d compromised his cornering line too much.
You could say that “he might as well go for it as he has nothing to lose”, but he was going for a move that quite a few predicted beforehand wasn’t going to work and probably did actually cost him a better chance at Turn 12 – if the odds of the move working are that low, it’s not worth the risk.
The comparison with Leclerc is a poor comparison too, as Leclerc got past Perez fairly comfortably on the exit of Turn 9 – he was already several car lengths ahead of Perez by the time he got to Turn 12. The reason why Leclerc was angry with himself was because it wasn’t a “do or die” move – quite the opposite, as he already had taken the position fairly safely and threw it away.
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
15th November 2020, 22:36
Brundle called the Perez move it before it happened. Easy to do of course sat in a commentary box, with “Max being the best thing in F1” should have wound his neck in a bit and many other occasions too.
iCarbs (@icarby)
19th November 2020, 7:55
@aiii – disagree one small point, when Hamilton enters a race, regardless of the qualifying or practice he is there to win. But if he doesn’t he and the team analyse why and remedy for future races.
I let myself get caught up in the whole “… it’s the car …” nonsense realising that the driver still has to make split second decisions, constantly assess the race situation which can change rapidly and above all being the car home whilst keeping an eye on future races. Being “fast” is only one of many prerequisites to being an F1 driver, if you have all of them then you’re a legend.
Davethechicken
15th November 2020, 21:42
Not so sure Amg44
Young Lewis in 2013 (when he his 116 GP’s) , had a WDC, a lost WDC in 2017, seen off Alonso, paired with yet another WDC as team mate, many many more poles, race wins and podiums than Max and driven some dreadful Mclarens by this stage.
I think Max doesn’t compare at all well at this stage in their respective careers.
Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
16th November 2020, 19:39
@amg44
It is not about “experience” with Max. Max has been in F1 for how many years now (5 years)? He knows what he’s doing, he just needs to make better decisions. Patience is not and has never been a characteristic that he’s ever shown. Quite frankly, at this point, if he hasn’t learned it yet…. I’m not so sure he ever will. He’s matured and calmed down a lot over the years, but he’s yet to learn patience. The incident with Perez… he could have played that much differently and look at an overtake in the following corner. I think Max jumps and commits at openings without the thought of risk. It’s almost as if he doesn’t think two or three steps ahead and instead, lives in that moment (the now). That is my opinion and issue with Max. I bet the majority of us saw the outcome not working out, well before entering that kink. The nice thing about Charles, is that he is so hard on himself that he takes those moments and learns from it (I do fear he sometimes is too harsh on himself). The only error Charles made was on that last lap, fighting for 2nd. Such a minor mistake that cost him a podium, but he shows growth from his errors (I do not see that in Max).
RotRacing (@rotracing)
15th November 2020, 16:11
Surprised to see no podium for the best car of the weekend.
Also, my kids and I laughed and laughed watching the synchronized spins.
Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt)
15th November 2020, 17:05
I do wonder if the skittishness of the Red Bull is more at fault than the circuit here. A lot of other cars made it work.
Max has always been able to keep the Red Bull on the island in moderate to good conditions, but I think the low grip circuit was too much even for Max to rein in the angry bull.
iCarbs (@icarby)
19th November 2020, 7:59
Now you’re making excuses for him. Max’s only mistake till the Perez moment was his start, otherwise he was fine, got past most of the traffic I.e Hamilton, Vettel and Ricardo but lost patience when it came to Perez.
His own fault.
Gabriel (@naylamp)
15th November 2020, 19:07
“unable to find conclusive evidence” what??? it was clear on TV, don’t insult us. at least say it was because track conditions but not that bullcrap.
Darren Moore
15th November 2020, 19:45
Verstappen had a bad day. It happens. The RBR just wasn’t working on the inters.
Davethechicken
15th November 2020, 21:45
Red Bull was the fastest car all weekend.
Max disintegrated mentally on Saturday, in qualifying and self destructed in the race.
Mayrton
16th November 2020, 9:07
Yes he did. The lack of experience/age showed today. Apparently fuel for the ones that dislike him. See them fume like they are a Trump. Not real fans of F1 I guess since there is zero dispute amongst experts about Max talent and potential. Max had a poor performance Sunday, his worst imho. No patience behind checo whilst already on a podium position. Thats experience as the oldies Ham and even accident prone Vettel showed. But it was a key learning moment at a time when nothing at all was at stake.
Davethechicken
16th November 2020, 17:23
Don’t get me wrong, Max is certainly fast.
But fast only wins some races and doesn’t win multiple Wdcs on it’s own. He needs self control, which so far has been lacking over 6 seasons.
The older he gets the less likely he is to learn this. Things become fixed as time passes.
His rivals will seize on any weakness and he is easily rattled. they will for sure rattle him if they are in a close wdc battle.
People on here talk him up, like he is an all time great. It is utterly absurd.
It is unfair on Max too, as he needs to see his shortcomings not have people feeding a parallel reality.
The fact is there are several very fast drivers of his age and younger in other teams.
When LH retires Max will need to seriously up his game if he is to beat Lec, Russell, norris and sainzs and who knows which of the feeder series driver will be the next “great thing”
Dave
17th February 2021, 16:38
And then the January attack happened…
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
15th November 2020, 19:54
I imagine he still can’t believe how they managed to lose that one. They were so much faster than anybody else the whole weekend and none of the top three had amazing pace.
Sometimes slow and steady wins the race
Green Flag (@greenflag)
15th November 2020, 22:26
In this case fast and steady….
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
15th November 2020, 22:31
Max : I don’t want challenges like that again
Lewis : I want more challenges like this.
I think that speaks volumes.
MacLeod (@macleod)
16th November 2020, 7:59
Lol, Max was talking about the asfalt not the wet thing. Overtaking was getting of the raceline as normal Max does in the Wet but those parts were slippery today due the asfalt.
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
17th November 2020, 22:05
My point still stands. Max was totally at sea in those conditions and was utterly frustrated and just tried to nail the go peddle at every opportunity. In in full wets, but utterly pointless on inters. Lewis just bided his time (and a few radio wah wah’s of course) and managed to drive on slicked inters just fine.
Max does some banzai Audi tailgating cos he’s hacked off by the pink Mercs instead of waiting it out in a looong race. Where as Lewis is just going, de de do driving-in-my-car.
Easy to say when you win the race and championship, and feel the need to justify your 7 championships to the haters, but come on, Max was a cry baby and Lewis just got on with it.
Wayne
16th November 2020, 5:06
@invisiblekid i could not have said it better😄
Davethechicken
17th November 2020, 14:55
Max (when he spins and loses position ) it is the rains fault
Charles (when he loses position) I will do better next time
Charles is going to be the next wdc after LH not Max
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
17th November 2020, 22:09
Max was totally at sea (pun intended).
And yes I do think Charles will be world camp before Max. Considering the experience each have, he’s already more mature than Max. I think every Ferrari driver mostly gets this attitude when signing on TBF though.
Dave
18th November 2020, 11:12
I would definitely welcome Charles to the club I joined after betraying Max.