Red Bull star Max Verstappen performed a U-turn on his performance during the Chinese Grand Prix after the world champion saw difficulty during his opening spell on the medium tyre in Shanghai
Max Verstappen accepted that he had given up more time to his rivals than he needed to it has emerged in radio messages sent from the Dutchman to his team. The world champion’s stance comes in great contrast to his view following his fourth-placed finish.
The four-time champion missed out on the podium in Shanghai and data following the race showed he lost ground over the course of the first stint with the medium tyres. After switching to the harder, more durable option, he was largely able to match the pace of the cars in front him including the dominant McLarens.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko suggested Verstappen may have dropped further back than required due to the higher tyre degradation experienced in the sprint race a day earlier. The Austrian said the medium tyre’s vulnerability may have still been in Verstappen’s mind.
“In the second stint with the hard tyre we were as fast as the leaders,” said Marko. “We lost the race because of the first stint with the medium tyre. Maybe there was still the idea in Max’s head that the medium tyre was quite vulnerable as it was in the sprint race. Maybe he was too cautious because of that.”
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Verstappen had a different verdict on that first spell however. “To be honest, I think the first stint actually worked out quite nicely for me, because my pace anyway was not up to their [McLaren/Ferrari/Russell] standard,” he said.
“So to be immediately behind them was better probably because I just drove my own pace as we set out to do. In the previous sprint and in Australia, we tried to fight and we degraded the tyres very aggressively. I just wanted to do my own pace and look after the tyres, but at the moment that’s not at the level of others around me.”
However, immediately following his tyre change, Verstappen appeared discontent during his opening spell on the medium tyre. “I gave a lot of time away in that first stint,” he said.
“Yes, we saw that, Max,” Gianpiero Lambiase offered in return, before attention turned to the hard tyre. “How is the hard tyre holding up?” asked Verstappen, in search of information.
“Pretty good on the front,” said Lambiase. “Still no issues on Liam’s [Lawson] tyre to this point.”
“It’s a normal kind of management?” asked the Dutchman. The Red Bull racer was encouraged to avoid being too cautious: “Yes, please. Let’s not over-protect.”
This season has already seen a dramatic start for Red Bull after they decided to replace Verstappen’s team-mate Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda. And now Red Bull chief Marko, who played a major role in the decision to swap drivers has admitted that their primary racer is not happy with the move.
He told De Telegraaf: “We know Max is not happy. But we need two cars at the front. Not only for the constructors’ championship, but also to help Max to his fifth world title. Then you can achieve more strategically in races.
“We can use Yuki’s experience and form now. That counts. At the end of the day, that is to the advantage of the team. And that also means to the advantage of Max.”.
