Verstappen ‘only made one big mistake all year’

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In the round-up: Max Verstappen says breaking his front wing exiting the garage at Silverstone was his one big mistake in 2024

In brief

Verstappen ‘only made one mistake all year’

Max Verstappen says he only made a single significant error during his dominant championship-rinning campaign.

“I only made one big mistake,” Verstappen told Blick. “I hit the pit wall at Silverstone. That’s rather embarrassing.”

However he admitted the team could have done better in the one grand prix it failed to win all season. “Things didn’t go perfectly in Singapore either,” said Verstappen. “Unfortunately, I messed up the set-up there.”

Ilott joins JOTA

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Former IndyCar racer Callum Ilott has joined Jota Sport’s World Endurance Championship hypercar squad for 2024.

Ilott left Juncos at the end of the IndyCar season with his seat taken by Romain Grosjean. He will join Jota’s hypercar effort in the WEC in the number 12 car alongside team mates Will Stevens and Norman Nato.

Alpine run Pulling in F1 Academy

Alpine junior driver Abbi Pulling will compete in a second season in the F1 Academy series in 2024 in Alpine colours, the team has confirmed.

Pulling raced with Carlin in the first season of the championship this year, taking fifth place in the drivers’ standings with seven podium appearances and two pole positions. She will remain with Carlin and be the only driver running in Alpine’s colours for 2024.

“This will be my third season in the team’s driver development programme, it’s amazing to be a part of the Alpine Racing family and have such incredible access and support from a Formula 1 team,” she said. “I am excited to head into another season of racing on the Formula 1 support bill, the atmosphere is going to be incredible.”

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Comment of the day

This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is bip!:

BOTTAS: “After Hamilton’s fine for crossing the track on foot, I’m just not risking it…”
bip

Thanks to everyone who came up with caption idea this week and a special mention to glynh, Derek Edwards, Only Facts!, and Red Andy who all came up with particularly good captions.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Andrew Hey, Christian Andrade, Rigi and Topher Smith!

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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24 comments on “Verstappen ‘only made one big mistake all year’”

  1. Jay
    12th December 2023, 1:55

    More than one race in Spain? Sure! But look at the populations and GDP;

    US: 339.9 million, GDP per Capita $75,269
    Spain: 47.5 million, GDP per Capita $29,385
    Italy: 58.8 million, GDP per Capita $34,053

    Money talks. I’d expect another race in Saudi Arabia before 2 in Spain.

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      DB-C90 (@dbradock)
      12th December 2023, 6:31

      Whilst I agree it’s incredibly unlikely, you need to include the UK, France and a heap more countries that would find it easy for punters to get to a race in Spain, more easily (and shorter distances) in fact than travelling to any of the US circuits for a large number of US fans.

      That could potentially make it more viable, but I don’t see the promoters raising anywhere near the right amount of cash to even get the interest of F1.

    2. notagrumpyfan
      12th December 2023, 9:09

      Money talks. I’d expect another race in Saudi Arabia before 2 in Spain.

      Spain: 47.5 million, GDP per Capita $29,385
      Saudi Arabia: 35.9 million, GDP per Capita $23,186

      I’m not an expert on politics, but based on the Spanish Prime Minister’s previous decisions and allegiances there might soon be no race in the (remainder of) Spain.

      1. Jay
        12th December 2023, 21:56

        Thanks for posting, truly! Obviously there are more factors than population and GDP. I’m just an armchair expert trying to learn. Thanks grumpy.

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    Jere (@jerejj)
    12th December 2023, 6:40

    I doubt two in Spain will occur, even if not entirely impossible, but most likely, Madrid would/will take over as the sole annual Spanish GP host.

    DC’s RB19 running seems to be from the summer, as the conditions look too summerly to have been filmed recently.

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      MacLeod (@macleod)
      12th December 2023, 7:56

      DC running was on the yellows i don’t think that was a filming tyre? Or did they give the demo tyres a colour? When i googled filming days most were on the yellow (super hard C-1)
      But that was very fast indeed he even said it was nimble maybe because DC is old enough racing cars without power steering and strong enough to switch the steering.

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      Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
      12th December 2023, 10:01

      @jerejj It was filmed mid-September between Monza and Singapore. The UK was experiencing an late-summer heatwave around the time.

      It was filmed for Channel 4’s coverage in the UK (of which DC is a pundit/co-commentator) and they even made the joke that he did something to the car that made it uncompetitive for Singapore.

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        Jere (@jerejj)
        12th December 2023, 21:09

        @optimaximal A logical explanation, although September would be a fitting option for such summerly-looking weather conditions even normally, as 20s halfway through the month aren’t necessarily a rarity.

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    SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
    12th December 2023, 7:43

    That MKBHD is a pretty good video for a new viewer, some minor errors or oversight, but overall just a really nice tech review of F1.

    1. melanos
      12th December 2023, 14:19

      For how long the wooden plank below the floor is not actually made of wood?

  4. notagrumpyfan
    12th December 2023, 8:56

    They have been had before. It is easy? It’s not possible?”

    Lost in translation ;)
    “Is it Easy? No! Is it possible? Yes!”

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    Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    12th December 2023, 9:13

    Getting back with Kelly was his only mistake this year.

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      Jere (@jerejj)
      12th December 2023, 21:11

      What do you mean back?
      He’s dated her since the brokeup with Kvyat, not that I really care about such trivial matters as relationships generally.

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        Jere (@jerejj)
        12th December 2023, 21:17

        I should’ve typed ‘breakup’ rather than brokeup.
        I guess tiredness just caught me not paying enough attention when typing.

  6. melanos
    12th December 2023, 10:49

    I enjoyed the DC video on the RB19, but it lacks perspective. No comparison with the other cars which also have changed a lot from what DC used to drive
    The RB19 is the most successful F1 car ever surpassing even the MP4/4 but it does not make it the most dominant car. In qualifying it used to be ahead by just a few tenths, not seconds like other cars in F1 history, even when driven by one of the best qualifiers ever (though Charles is maybe even better on a good day). But the competition keep changing along the championship. In the early season it was AM who got closest and the Monaco Q3 was epic, Max got it by less than one tenth after an astonishing last sector in which he brushed the walls 3 times. In the second half of the season it was Ferrari grabbing 6 of the 12 last poles, this would never happen with a truly dominant car. In the meantime. Mercedes and even McLaren at times seemed the closest contender to the RB19. Divide and conquer. The dispersion of the rivals made the RB19 look stronger than it was.
    I would love to read a f1metrics piece on that, we have an unbiased and objective list of the most dominant cars but only up to 2019. My guess is that it would not make the top ten. Well, the MP4/4 did not, and despite being (then) the most successful F1 car ever, it ranked well behind monster cars like the W05 or the Sharknose in dominance.

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      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      12th December 2023, 12:12

      I suppose it’s possible that it wouldn’t make the top 10 since quali performance is basically the weakness of this car and it seems to be important in this ranking.

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    Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    12th December 2023, 13:00

    That’s not true – there were many more mistakes including pushing Gasly out, running into Russell, pushing Leclerc out, the overtake in the pit exit at Abu Dhabi, the slew of qualifying issues where he got together with the FIA to ensure other drivers are penalized in the future for his mistakes and these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. But delusion is definitely one of Max’s strengths just like he claims he likes competition.

    1. Craig
      12th December 2023, 17:22

      I wouldn’t be surprised if the full sentence was “He only made one mistake we’re willing to acknowledge as we’ll act like all the others were someone else’s fault”.

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      w0o0dy (@w0o0dy)
      12th December 2023, 19:09

      And there he is again with the utter nonsense…

      1. melanos
        12th December 2023, 19:58

        Nonsense is talking back to the brigade, I’m sorry to say

    3. David
      13th December 2023, 14:53

      I suppose it depends on what you consider a “big” mistake really but his failure to get into Q3 at Singapore was certainly noteworthy.

      Plenty of small mistakes all season, I won’t list them all.

    4. osnola
      13th December 2023, 20:27

      I can think of off the top of my head

      look at your thumb..

  8. melanos
    12th December 2023, 13:48

    Maybe not the biggest mistake but certainly the silliest. it looked like a rookie brainfart. No consequences however, Max did the hat-trick in Silverstone: pole, flap and win. Even if the McLs were very close: Lando took the lead, kept it for 4+ laps and finished within 4 secs of Max, and Oscar was genuinely challenging Max for most of lap 1 and Max almost lost it in one of the corners while defending.
    After the Interlagos race Max admitted that he was so engrossed watching the Checo-Fernando duel on the screens (a true highlight of the season) that he almost lost it when he was just cruising to victory., that would have been real silly.

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    A M (@amam)
    13th December 2023, 19:16

    I think picking up a penalty for forcing Leclerc off track is a fairly big mistake

Comments are closed.