The Monaco Grand Prix was a turning point in Max Verstappen’s road to this year’s world championship, according to his driver and former F1 driver father.
Verstappen finished the race third, ahead of teammate Sergio Perez. But as Verstappen and father Joss explain in a new documentary, from this point on, Red Bull began to improve the car in a way that allowed the championship to get the most out of it.
“Where I saw the turning point, as well as the way Max was going, was after Monaco,” said Jos Verstappen at Viaplay’s Lion Unleashed 2.
The boy arrives at Monaco six points clear at the top of the championship standings with Charles Leclerc 19 behind.
Verstappen’s father said: “He had a problem with the car, and the car was not good for his needs.” “After Monaco we pushed hard with the team and I think they went in the right direction to solve that problem for him.”
The car was gradually built “his way” as Red Bull removed kilograms from the car that started with the minimum weight limit.
Verstappen said he was happy with the changes to his car after the Monaco race. “After Monaco we had a good discussion about what I want from the car and what I want from the car,” explained the world champion.
“At the start of the season, the car wasn’t my favorite, but that was because the weight of the car was in the wrong place.
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“So the more weight we shed, the more competitive the car became. And this is the way I like the car to be. It was getting into my kind of driving style to go faster. So that definitely helped me a lot. “
“Red Bull responded well to the questions,” Verstappen said. “I was like, ‘Guys, we’ve got to focus a little bit more on what we want from the car now, we’ve got to really get the weight off, we know it’s really going to hurt,’ and I said, ‘Just me.’ We need a strong front, and we’ve got to work on that.”
The weekend appears to have been a high point in the relationship between Verstappen and Perez. At the end of the year, Verstappen turned down requests to help his team-mate, a move some interpreted as revenge for Perez’s crash in the final Q3 at Monaco, which saw him start on track ahead of his team-mate. It is very difficult to pass.
Red Bull took advantage of Ferrari’s strategic mistakes in the race that started on a wet track, giving Perez the home win. The following day, Verstappen’s father criticized Red Bull’s handling of the race in an article on his family’s website.
“Red Bull has achieved good results, but at the same time has not had much influence to help Max forward,” he wrote in May. “He finished third, with Charles Leclerc in second place due to Ferrari’s fault. Championship leader Max was not helped by this chosen strategy. It turned completely in Czecho’s favor. That was disappointing for me, and I would have liked it to be different for the championship leader.
“Perez won the race because of an earlier pit stop. The team could probably explain it as a gamble, but they saw earlier, for example Gasly, that the intermediates were the best option at that time. I wanted them to go for Max, but of course I am not completely objective. From Max I think 10 points are thrown here.
Verstappen and Perez will continue as Red Bull drivers for 2023 F1.
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