Max Verstappen said he thought Red Bull had got on top of the balance problem with their car in qualifying before slumping to seventh on the grid.
The championship leader came close to matching the quickest time in Q2. However despite having two fresh sets of soft tyres for Q3 Verstappen was unable to get within 0.36 seconds of his time.“Just Q3 was very bad,” Verstappen told the official F1 channel. “On both of my tyre sets I just picked up a lot of understeer so I couldn’t attack any corners anymore. I had to back it out a lot mid-corner and you lose a lot of lap time with that.”
Verstappen’s 1’19.662 in Q2 was just 0.021s off the best time in that session, set by Hamilton. His 1’20.022 in Q3 meant he was the only driver whose best time in that session was slower than he managed in Q2.
“Somehow in Q2 it wasn’t that bad,” said Verstappen. “I did a point six at that point and we were almost the quickest.
“I mean, we know our limitations, we know our problems, but at that point I think we had it fairly under control. But I went into Q3 and the balance is completely out and I don’t really understand how that happened.”
Following his poor first run in Q3, Red Bull sent Verstappen out immediately behind his team mate Sergio Perez in the hope of giving him the best possible position to set his final lap. However Perez went off at Lesmo 2, and Verstappen passed him before the final corner, meaning he could not use his team mate’s slipstream to reach the finishing line.
Verstappen admitted he is concerned about his car’s race pace as he will start from the fourth row of the grid.
“It’s not ideal for tyres,” he said. “Of course, now we are at the back end of the top group, I would say, so let’s see how that will evolve. Difficult to say how competitive we are going to be in the race compared to the others.”
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pcxmac (@pcxmac)
31st August 2024, 20:25
RBR doesn’t control the tires. After watching the emotions/expressions/reactions … I am starting to think that perhaps this whole brake issue is a red hearing, Jos (if that internal squabble was real) was being used by Toto because he had advanced knowledge, and Pirelli are driving the championship. The system seems well enough defined, its easy to understand through trend analysis, and the common basis is the QUALITY of the tires.
As someone who works in industry, you can run the product line over different sets of ‘tooling’, and run some tooling out of spec/calibration, which can yield unreliable results. This is probably the easiest way to ‘hide’ the fact that some lots are not as good as others. RBR have to demand, at least internally that tire distribution is more transparent and distribution become randomized.
If RBR have run the same car w/ yesterday’s tires and today’s tires and thats REALLY the only difference, if environmental factors are accurately accounted for, and they cannot account for the difference, then Pirelli own them an answer.
Asanator
1st September 2024, 2:47
Wow, rarely have I heard a bigger load of nonsense on this site (and that is saying.something!). There are a lot of ‘if’s’ doing some.very heavy lifting in that post!
SteveP
1st September 2024, 7:59
Ever done any time in a rubber lab?
It isn’t as simple as some people think.
Yes, the Pirelli rubber is mediocre.
No, I don’t think it is selectively mediocre.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st September 2024, 11:57
Well written, SteveP – yeah, sure, there certainly seem to be inconsistencies and variance but to think Pirelli is somehow doing this on purpose to hurt specifically one team?? That is utter BS.
Nick T.
1st September 2024, 8:26
If you think there are this many conspiracies going on in F1, I’d love to hear your political conspiracy theories.
Observer
31st August 2024, 20:40
If he’s quick, it’s because he’s a genius. If he’s slow, it’s the tyres/team/car/weather/other driver at fault. Another day in Maxland.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
31st August 2024, 21:37
He’s generally so much faster than perez that I tend to say it’s verstappen who could’ve done better here, you don’t suddenly just match your team mate whom you’ve been destroying all season.
Having said that, I don’t know how many positions he could’ve gained, if any, given how close the top 6 were.
Steve (@scbriml)
31st August 2024, 22:29
@esploratore1 Monza is one of those circuits where it’s not unusual to see each grid row occupied by separate teams. It’s a track that’s dominated by car performance vs driver performance, maybe more than any other in the calendar. Verstappen simply couldn’t make that much difference.
Nick T.
1st September 2024, 8:29
Yup. The balance wasn’t that bad at all. All cars were having big moments. He just flubbed his first run in the worst of all sessions and then Checo made it impossible to improve his time on the second run. Hilariously, Checo is still shut out at 16-0.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
1st September 2024, 2:22
Max without the fastest car is quite ordinary. Who would have guessed?
SteveP
1st September 2024, 8:14
There are quite a few who have uttered statements that amount to “it’s the car”
Observer, above, summarises quite neatly.
People have derided LH for years when he praises all the people in the team and especially the factory crew, yet they seem surprised when MV in a failing car, fails.
In this instance, it seems MV in a car that doesn’t suit his style is only moderately better than Perez in a car that does suit his style, but the car is seemingly only moderately good. Welcome to the mid-field.
Nick T.
1st September 2024, 8:37
I mean, all the GOAT candidates can only do so much more than their car allows. It’s why it always amused me when any of the champs who had long multi-title runs had people saying they were untouchable and as soon as their car is no longer dominant, people start to slowly think they’ve lost it. It’s why I find it especially silly when people rely upon poles, wins and WDCs as the be all and end all of arguments when judging how drivers stack up.
Mayrton
1st September 2024, 8:59
Having not the best material is something he has had for the majority of his time in F1, all seasons before the start of the 2022 season. He easily was impressive as he is now given the material at hand. I know it is hard to distinguish the man from the material for a lot of fans, but if you pay attention – like a lot of experts and former racing drivers – you can see through it.
SteveP
1st September 2024, 10:02
Given less than the best, he seems to be average.
Given the best, he, mostly, gets the car to the chequered flag in a podium position.
I believe Horner said that their 2021 car was the fastest on the grid.
bartvander (@bartvander)
1st September 2024, 10:31
‘Given less than the best, he seems to be average.’ sould be ‘Given less than the best, he seems to be extraordinary.’
Like him or not, if anyone has proven himself with less than the best material, it’s Max.
But I think it is on condition that there is balance in the car. It’s totally missing right now given the feedback from Max and RBR.
Mayrton
1st September 2024, 10:49
I agree it is just people disliking him that state he is average. It was clear from the get go Max can do extraordinary things with average material. Like I said, only biased or new to the sport people are not able to see that (which is fine in itself although sometimes a bit childish) but all experts agree on it.
SteveP
1st September 2024, 10:53
Less than the best then, and the performance was average (or if your benchmark is Perez, barely above low end of average)
SteveP
1st September 2024, 10:57
@Mayrton
So you disagree that Saturday’s performance was average? Achieved in a car that was average.
On the same set of conditions, LH was sub-par, but he said it was his fault.
Kyvaty
1st September 2024, 6:43
Newey is leaving, so is he not bother to think of any upgrade for RB?
Nick T.
1st September 2024, 8:44
RBR were the ones who cut him out of technical development when he announced he was leaving. And then it seems he has been the one that has decided not to help them in setting up their cars, which has hurt them equally if not more. It’s yet another example of why, while Max is undoubtedly one of the greatest in F1 history, people should have been waxing lyrical in equal measure about Newey rather just endlessly gushing over Max during his wins and poles streak.
However, Max does not look quite ordinary at all. This is literally the first quali of the year he hasn’t gotten 100% out of the car so far. No one else has been nearly as consistent as him this season. And, as I often mention, I say this as someone who has never liked Max.
M2X
1st September 2024, 12:29
That’s literally what has been happening since the ground effect era started…
“Newey can see airflow”
“Newey is a ground effect god”
“Newey’s masterpiece”
Etc, etc, etc.