Max Verstappen – Page 6 – Syndication Server

Verstappen leads crash-strewn first Baku GP practice

Max Verstappen topped a disrupted first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed out less than halfway through the session. Leclerc was on his second push lap of the hour, having set the fastest time of the session two …

Max Verstappen topped a disrupted first practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed out less than halfway through the session.

Leclerc was on his second push lap of the hour, having set the fastest time of the session two laps earlier, when he carried too much speed into the rapid Turn 15. His Ferrari sailed past the apex of the downhill left-hander and speared directly into the barriers, doing most damage to his front-right corner.

“I took the dirt on the outside,” Leclerc radioed, referring to the dusty street surface that greeted the sport on its return to Baku.

The session was suspended for around seven minutes to collect the car, but running had resumed for less than 10 minutes when rookie Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams at Turn 4. The Argentine, starting his second race weekend, turned late into the right-hander and ended up on the dust, which sent him sliding into the outside barrier. His car whacked his rear-left corner and then its front-left before coming to rest in what could amount to a sizable repair job ahead of second practice later today.

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Combined with an earlier red flag to collect metal debris from the circuit, drivers lost almost 20 minutes of the hour to suspensions.

Through the carnage and delays emerged Verstappen, who lowered the benchmark to 1m45.546s with an after-the-flag lap on used soft tires. His lap was constructed on purple times in the opening two sectors; intriguingly the Dutchman was well off the pace in the flat-out final split.

Lewis Hamilton had topped the time sheet from shortly before Colapinto’s red flag until Verstappen’s knockout punch, the Mercedes driver’s time 0.313s slower than the Red Bull Racing man’s headline lap.

Sergio Perez completed the top three, also with a time set after the flag, to lap 0.376s slower than his session-leading teammate.

Lando Norris was 0.481s off the pace in fourth, 0.145s ahead of Carlos Sainz and 0.255s quicker than McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

“Bottoming level is quite high through the high speed,” Piastri reported early in the session. “It’s not exactly straightforward.”

Fernando Alonso was quickest in the final sector but 0.906s off the pace overall in seventh ahead of George Russell and Leclerc, who held onto ninth despite his crash.

Daniel Ricciardo crept into the top 10 for RB, complete with the team’s latest upgrade package after forgoing the new bits in Italy.

Oliver Bearman, replacing the suspended Kevin Magnussen this weekend, was 11th and 0.162s quicker than Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg in 12th.
Lance Stroll was 13th and 0.732s slower than teammate Alonso.

“This is not a car,” the Canadian blasted over team radio. “This is not a car right now.”

Valtteri Bottas was 14th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda — “My car is bouncing like hell,” said the Japanese driver late in the session — and the smashed-up Colapinto.

Alex Albon narrowly avoided Colapinto’s fate at Turn 4 to take his Williams to 17th ahead of Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu down to 19th.

Esteban Ocon completed only three laps before suffering a power unit issue that forced him back to garage for analysis.

Russell surprised by ‘strange’ recent Mercedes and Red Bull form

George Russell says the performance of Mercedes and Red Bull in recent races is “all a bit strange” after Ferrari and McLaren dominated the Italian Grand Prix. Lando Norris took a comfortable victory at Zandvoort before Charles Leclerc used strategy …

George Russell says the performance of Mercedes and Red Bull in recent races is “all a bit strange” after Ferrari and McLaren dominated the Italian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris took a comfortable victory at Zandvoort before Charles Leclerc used strategy to beat the two McLarens at Monza, ahead of Carlos Sainz in fourth. Lewis Hamilton, in fifth, was over 22 seconds behind Leclerc, and with the Red Bulls over half a minute off the pace, Russell says it’s a surprise to see such a consistent swing in performance.

“I think it is very tight at the moment, especially in qualifying, but McLaren and Ferrari definitely seem to have the edge on us at the moment,” Russell said.

“It’s all a bit strange, like when you look at Red Bull’s performance, nobody would have predicted that five races ago. So either those guys have made big gains or I don’t know what’s going on, but we need to keep working hard and make some changes.”

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Russell himself ended up seventh behind Max Verstappen in Monza, but was closing on the championship leader in the final laps after losing over ten seconds changing a front wing he had damaged on the opening lap. Russell said it was his mistake that led to him clipping Oscar Piastri, and that it heavily impacted the rest of his race.

“I made a good start alongside Oscar. He had the slipstream from Lando and when he pulled out in front of me and hit the brakes I misjudged it, hit the brakes my side and I was locking up the rear tires and was about to crash into him, so had to take avoiding action and that’s where it all went wrong.

“[I’m] really quite disappointed, because so much hard work goes into all these weekends for it to go away so quick. But, ultimately, I don’t think we would have had the pace to fight with Ferrari and McLaren.”

Teammate Hamilton described his Italian Grand Prix outing as unexciting, having found he couldn’t match the pace of the top four.

“It was a really dull, dull day,” Hamilton said. “I was hoping to have more pace and be able to progress, but I couldn’t even… I mean, I was I think as quick for a while with Carlos but then I had more degradation, maybe as I was right behind, not sure. Just for some reason we didn’t have the pace.”

Red Bull ‘absolutely under pressure’ in F1 title fights

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admits “both championships will absolutely be under pressure” if it can’t turn around its form after the Italian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen finished sixth and Sergio Perez eighth at Monza, having qualified …

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admits “both championships will absolutely be under pressure” if it can’t turn around its form after the Italian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen finished sixth and Sergio Perez eighth at Monza, having qualified seventh and eighth respectively behind McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Although Verstappen still holds a 62-point lead in the drivers’ championship, Lando Norris has taken 16 points out of his advantage in the past two rounds and with eight races to go Horner is concerned by the performance level of the car.

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“With the pace we had… both championships absolutely will be under pressure, for sure,” Horner said. “We have to turn the situation around very quickly. I think this circuit has exposed the deficiencies we have in the car versus last year, and I think that we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend, we know we have to get on top of and address, otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure.

“Based on [Sunday’s] performance you’d say both are under absolute pressure, we were the fourth-fastest car, that’s the reality. We’ve got to turn it around, if we want to make sure we win both titles.”

Red Bull is now just eight points clear of McLaren and 39 ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings, and Horner says Monza highlighted the root cause of the struggles that the team has been facing.

“I think on other [circuits] perhaps running more downforce hides some of the balance issues we have, and you can see that we have a disconnection in balance that just isn’t working. And as soon as you end up in that situation, you’re harder on tires, you end up compensating, you move the balance around, you secure one problem and create another, so you just end up in a vicious circle.”

However, Horner took some solace from the fact that Norris didn’t secure maximum points in Monza, being overtaken by Oscar Piastri on the opening lap and finishing third behind his teammate as Charles Leclerc beat both to victory.

“I don’t know what the papaya rules are, but they nearly took themselves out of the race at the second chicane. From a drivers championship point of view it helped us out.

“It’s always a difficult position as a team but it’s inevitable at some point you’ve got to put your best foot forward and it’s impossible to do that when you’re got a situation like that.”

‘Both championships are not realistic’ anymore – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says the current form that Red Bull is showing makes it unrealistic to think it will win both championships, after finishing sixth in the Italian Grand Prix. Lando Norris took another eight points out of Verstappen’s championship lead …

Max Verstappen says the current form that Red Bull is showing makes it unrealistic to think it will win both championships, after finishing sixth in the Italian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris took another eight points out of Verstappen’s championship lead by finishing third at Monza and securing the fastest lap, while Verstappen was only sixth. Both Ferraris and McLarens finished ahead of the championship leader, who was 38s behind race-winner Charles Leclerc and 15s adrift of Lewis Hamilton in fifth, extending his run of races without a win to six.

“At the moment both championships are not realistic,” Verstappen said. “The car is undriveable; it’s a massive balance problem that we have, and that is not only over one lap but also the race.

“I’ve said a lot [to the team] and now it’s up to the team to come with lot of changes with the car because we basically went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car in the space of, what, six to eight months? That is very weird for me, and we need to really turn the car upside down.”

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Verstappen said pre-race that it would be a case of damage limitation for Red Bull in Italy, but he felt there was potential to execute a better race even if it was unlikely he would finish any higher.

“It was pretty boring, but we were too slow,” he said. “The [slow] pit stop of course cost me a bit, I couldn’t run full power for most of the race with the engine because we had a little issue, and I think also strategy wise we could have done a better job to be at least a little bit more competitive in the fight or whatever. It wouldn’t have changed the position but I think we didn’t do our optimal race.”

There was also a radio message from Verstappen where he asked, “Can the people in the background please be awake? I know this is a s**t position, but it’s important.” Explaining the context afterwards, he says the team didn’t appear to be on top of some of the information coming from the car.

“It had to do with my battery percentage because there are certain levels you’re at and modes you use,” he said. “I see it topping up and at [a point you can go into a faster mode]. So I asked and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you can.’ I’m like, ‘Come on, this is so obvious — things that you need to be on top of.’ I know I’m not racing anyone, but that shouldn’t matter. It’s still an F1 race where you have to maximize everything.”

Balance issues put Verstappen in damage-limitation mode again

Max Verstappen doesn’t believe he will be in the fight for victory in the Italian Grand Prix after struggling with the balance of his car and qualifying in seventh place. Red Bull looked competitive alongside McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes on Friday, …

Max Verstappen doesn’t believe he will be in the fight for victory in the Italian Grand Prix after struggling with the balance of his car and qualifying in seventh place.

Red Bull looked competitive alongside McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes on Friday, and appeared in the fight for the top positions in qualifying until Q3, when Verstappen ended up seventh ahead of Sergio Perez in eighth. The team’s long run pace had been more encouraging but Verstappen says the feeling inside the car was not comfortable and he’s not confident in his race pace.

“Probably not [in the fight], no, you cannot win when you’re too slow,” Verstappen said. “The long runs, they might look good on paper, but it didn’t really feel like that personally. The problem is that when you don’t have a balanced car, in the race that is quite painful on tires also. So, let’s see.

“I mean, maybe with how the car is at the moment it might be a little bit better for the race. But we’re also starting in the back of, let’s say, the top group. So, we just have to wait and see what happens in front of us. There are a few unknowns with the [tire] graining, actually, as well. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

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Despite his concerns with how the car is feeling, Verstappen was also surprised by how much his performance dropped off in Q3, as he was unable to match lap times he had set earlier in the qualifying session.

“For whatever reason in Q3 I picked up a lot of understeer on both tire sets. This is something that I don’t understand at the moment,” he said. “It was just not drivable anymore — I couldn’t attack any corner. So that’s something that is very weird. I mean, going four tenths slower than we did in Q2 is just not normal. I already had the same problem on the lap before, on the other tire set. So, it was just not working for whatever reason. I think the temperature dropped a little bit.

“The only explanation is that it felt better on a scrubbed tire for me than on a new. But still, the balance difference that I had in Q3 was very weird. I never experienced something like that before.

“It’s just weird that it suddenly happened, because Q1, Q2, it was not like that. On the other hand, our car is extremely tricky to drive from entry to mid-corner. There’s a massive balance shift at the moment. If you fix one thing, it creates another problem. So, you have to be quite careful with that as well.”

Norris eyeing chance to cut Verstappen’s lead at Monza

Lando Norris says he needs to try and make the most of his opportunity to cut Max Verstappen’s championship lead even further at the Italian Grand Prix, after qualifying on pole position. Verstappen entered the race weekend at Monza with a 70-point …

Lando Norris says he needs to try and make the most of his opportunity to cut Max Verstappen’s championship lead even further at the Italian Grand Prix, after qualifying on pole position.

Verstappen entered the race weekend at Monza with a 70-point advantage over Norris, following the McLaren driver’s dominant victory at Zandvoort a week ago. Qualifying saw Norris secure a second consecutive pole position ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, while Verstappen is only seventh on the grid and behind both Ferrari and Mercedes drivers.

“It’s a good opportunity,” Norris said. “I expect [Verstappen] to cut through and be behind us quite quickly. Their race pace looked very strong on Friday; they were on the better side of the graining and the degradation. I expect them to be a bit more hopeful tomorrow.

“For some reason they didn’t seem to take those steps forward through qualifying. [Verstappen] still seemed quick, even in Q2 he was right there and ended up quicker than me even on a used tire. Even his gap to Perez wasn’t as big as what it normally is, so I don’t know if he struggled more with something or didn’t put good enough laps in. It’ll be for a reason, I’m sure, and we need to try and make the most of that.”

With Norris expecting McLaren to talk about team orders on Sunday morning as part of its strategy meeting, he is also not as confident that he and Piastri will have as big an advantage over the rest of the field as he had a week ago.

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“Honestly, I think when you look back to Zandvoort, you could say yes, there was enough evidence that led us to believe we could have a very, very strong race,” he said. “Here, less so, just because it’s been so close, but we’re still first and second, which means we have a good car and that normally translates well into a good race car.

“I think tomorrow there’s more question marks with more graining and degradation and things like that. Everyone is 4-1-2 (soft-medium-hard sets) with tires, and probably a little bit more nervous of what could happen or what might happen. We’re in the best position for it, so excited to see what we can do.”

Norris also admitted he didn’t expect his final lap of qualifying to be good enough for pole position, after making a mistake at the first chicane that cost him lap time.

“It just didn’t feel like a nailed lap,” he said. “I think all of us as drivers, when you go out in qualifying, you just want to put together the perfect lap, you want everything to flow. I tried pushing the braking a bit more for [Turn] 1, and I actually got [it] so much better; I then smashed the inside curb of [Turn] 2 because I turned in too early.

“So I was about 0.15s down just after Turn 1, so I was kind of like ‘Eek, it’s over already before it even starts.’ I didn’t expect to gain it, but then I nailed the second chicane and gained 0.15s back straightaway. Then just made a couple of hundredths of a gain in every corner from that point on.

“It just didn’t feel like a nailed lap, didn’t feel as good as my lap last weekend, but clearly still good enough for pole, which is a nice feeling.”

Decision to promote Antonelli took ‘five minutes’ – Wolff

Toto Wolff says he made his choice to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told him he was leaving for Ferrari. Hamilton shocked many in Formula 1 with his decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari, announcing the switch at …

Toto Wolff says he made his choice to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told him he was leaving for Ferrari.

Hamilton shocked many in Formula 1 with his decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari, announcing the switch at the start of February despite having signed a new contract only five months earlier. When given that news, Wolff says he knew he wanted to put Antonelli into the seat, although delayed a final decision while exploring the potential of attracting Max Verstappen from Red Bull.

“I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me he was going to Ferrari,” Wolff said. “Obviously we were discussing with other options, and obviously the Max idea couldn’t be discounted completely looking at what happened at Red Bull, but instinctively that is the lineup that I always wanted. Bearing in mind the fast tracking that we did with Kimi and everything that we did there too, but it was immediately what I wanted to do.”

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With Antonelli joining George Russell, Mercedes has only confirmed its line-up for 2025 at this stage, and Wolff admits there are multiple options in place that don’t guarantee the same pairing beyond that point.

“These two are the future — they have been and will be Mercedes drivers. Therefore we have contracts with George and Kimi that go much longer that are very complicated in terms of options, etc. This is a pressure cooker, Mercedes always has been a pressure cooker, but this is where we stand as a team today, we want to go with these two.

“Like we have done in the past, we have always had very short contracts. Even with Lewis the last time it came around it was one plus one. This is in a way how the team operated. But I think what’s most important is to see how George and Kimi settle in, and I see no reason at that stage not giving them the faith and the trust of going forward.

“What that means for the terms is something that we will discuss between ourselves, but we wouldn’t have gone for the lineup with these two if we wouldn’t believe 100 percent that they are the best choice for Mercedes.”

Wolff has openly spoken of his interest in signing Verstappen in the past, and would not rule out a future move for the Dutchman even after committing to a line-up with an average age of 22 years old.

“What I appreciate also in dealing with them is they’re straightforward and transparent. I don’t flirt outside, I’ve always said it. I got maybe caught out by the Lewis situation, but I have not entertained any discussions with any drivers. We’re giving all from the team to make it a success, and this is why all of our focus in the team is on George and Kimi. And that’s where I also stand.

“There is no discussion, there is no second thoughts about what we’re doing in 2026, because now it’s about 2024 and 2025. And if flirting outside happens, then they will know it, these guys will know it at the same time, when we have those discussions. I’ve always been open.”

Verstappen upstages Ferrari in first Italian GP practice

Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the first practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, while Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 debut ended early with a heavy crash. There was huge interest in Antonelli, who only turned 18 …

Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the first practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, while Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 debut ended early with a heavy crash.

There was huge interest in Antonelli, who only turned 18 last Sunday and is expected to be confirmed as a Mercedes driver for 2025. However, an encouraging start that saw him top the times after his first lap was followed by a heavy crash at Parabolica on his second attempt.

Antonelli was immediately on the pace on soft tires but then lost the rear entering the final corner, spinning into the barrier at high speed and heavily damaging the car. While he was unhurt in the incident, it brought out a red flag after just 10 minutes of running, halting proceedings for nearly a quarter of the session.

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Before that incident, Verstappen appeared to be struggling with a braking issue as he missed the first chicane on multiple occasions, but he seemed happier after the resumption and went fastest on a 1m21.676s as the majority of the field set their best times on the soft compound tire.

Charles Leclerc was second quickest as Ferrari brought an upgrade package to its home race, ending up 0.228s adrift of Verstappen but 0.007s ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren.

There was almost a repeat incident of the Antonelli crash for Carlos Sainz — who ended up fourth fastest — when the Spaniard had to catch a snap of oversteer on entry into Parabolica, but he managed to gather up the car before reaching the gravel.

The final corner was proving particularly challenging and was toughest on the two rookies, with Franco Colapinto — Logan Sargeant’s replacement at Williams — ending his session with a trip through the gravel but managing to keep the car moving and return to the pits.

Prior to that, Colapinto had enjoyed a solid outing and completed 23 laps, gaining valuable mileage in the Williams ahead of his first grand prix. The Argentinian’s best lap was over 0.6s off teammate Alex Albon who ended the session in the top eight, but he will be able to build across two further hours of practice.

There was a surprise in the top five with Valtteri Bottas within half a second of Verstappen, with the Finn spending a spell at the top of the times before being bumped down by some late soft tire runs from the front-runners.

Bottas did have a new power unit in his car as both Stake and Haas drivers received fresh Ferrari engines for the Monza weekend, but it was a similar approach from FP1 for Mercedes as Albon was the only one of its drivers — across both the works and customer teams — not to fit a new set of power unit components.

Aside from Colapinto’s off-track moment, the end of the session also saw a spin for Esteban Ocon, who bounced across the apex curb at the first chicane with the rear of his car after swapping ends, as the drivers had to get to grips with Monza’s new track surface.

‘Something has been going wrong’ – Verstappen

Max Verstappen admitted “something has been going wrong” with his Red Bull car as the Formula 1 season has unfolded, after being decisively beaten by Lando Norris in the Dutch Grand Prix. Norris took pole position by over 0.35s on Saturday, and …

Max Verstappen admitted “something has been going wrong” with his Red Bull car as the Formula 1 season has unfolded, after being decisively beaten by Lando Norris in the Dutch Grand Prix.

Norris took pole position by over 0.35s on Saturday, and despite losing the lead to Verstappen at the start of the race he overtook the Red Bull and went on to win by more than 22 seconds. Having won seven of the first 10 races, Verstappen hasn’t won in the last five, and says the RB20 has become increasingly challenging to drive.

“The whole weekend has been the same,” Verstappen said. “I had pretty much the same balance from FP1 all the way to the race. I mean, the limitations are the same. So it’s just very hard to solve at the moment.

“It just seems like we are too slow, but also quite bad on [tire] deg at the moment. That’s a bit weird because I think the last few years, normally we’ve been quite good on that. So something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand and we need to quickly try to improve.

“It’s just not a connected balance, front or rear. It wasn’t there in the first few races. But something in the car has made it more difficult to drive and it’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment. That is then hurting our one-lap performance, but also our long runs.”

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Norris secured the fastest lap on the final lap of the race to cut Verstappen’s lead by eight points, but with a 70-point advantage still in hand the Dutchman says he isn’t worrying too much yet.

“I think this weekend was just a bad weekend in general. So we need to understand that,” he said. “But the last few races, they haven’t really been fantastic. So that, I think in a sense, was already a bit alarming. But we know that we don’t need to panic. We are just trying to improve the situation, and that’s what we are working on, but F1 is very complicated.”

Russell eager to prove upgraded Mercedes’ pace is real

George Russell says he can’t wait for qualifying as Mercedes looks in the mix with McLaren and Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix, while opening practice pacesetters Lando Norris and Max Verstappen both were left looking to find more performance after …

Mercedes topped the second practice session at Zandvoort with Russell first and teammate Lewis Hamilton third, separated by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. With the top five — also including Norris and Verstappen — covered by under 0.3s, Russell says the Mercedes is handling well and he is excited by the prospect of fighting for pole position in qualifying.

“Getting back into the swing of things,” Russell said. “Really difficult out there because it was so, so windy, probably the windiest I’ve remembered in the last couple of years. The car was performing really well — got the upgrades on which seem to be working as expected. It looks like quite a close battle with the McLarens, with Max, but it could all be different again tomorrow.

“The first six races, the car was off the pace but the weather was consistent and they were pretty straightforward race weekends for everyone. Suddenly as soon as the car’s been quick in Canada, Silverstone, all sorts [of weather] have been thrown at us, but it’s the same for everyone.

“I’m just really excited to be back and can’t wait to go out in qualifying and feel that battle and excitement that qualifying always offers. I’ve missed it.”

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While Piastri was 0.061s off Russell, Norris was over 0.2s adrift and believes it will be close with Mercedes as McLaren looks to fine-tune an upgraded car at Zandvoort.

“Mercedes are quite quick — it’s close,” Norris said. “I don’t think there is a quickest; it just depends on different factors. We’ve been in good form since Miami, but we’ve not really brought any updates since Miami, this weekend’s our first time trying to make a bit more progress with the car.

“So, optimistic but I have no idea if it’s working or not or how it’s performing at the minute, but today was a reasonable day and we’re there or thereabouts. A little bit more to find overnight hopefully and we can challenge the Mercedes.”

Norris and McLaren led the way in opening practice but feels he still has “a little more to find” for qualifying. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images

Home favorite Verstappen had a spin in the wet first session before ending up sixth in FP2, and he says Red Bull appears to be lacking performance compared to the top two teams.

“Of course FP1 we didn’t really get a lot of running in but I guess in FP2 you could see a little bit more where you are,” Verstappen said. “A bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long run! So a bit of work to do. At the moment, no clear answer of how to improve that specifically but we’ll look into things. Just a bit too slow, as simple as that.

“It’s where we have been the last few races, you know? So it’s not really a surprise. We’ll try to just find a little bit more performance for Sunday.”