Max previews Interlagos: "Rain could make it interesting"
Published on 10 November 2016 by Stefan Meens
After the controversial final few laps of the Mexican Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen crossed the line in third, Sebastian Vettel stood on the third spot on the podium and Daniel Ricciardo got to take the trophy home, Thursday’s Brazilian GP press conference was set to be a tasty affair with Max, Ricciardo, and Vettel attending. Felipe Massa and the Championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg joined the two Red Bull Racing and the Ferrari driver.
As it is Felipe Massa’s final Brazilian Grand Prix, the opening questions focussed on the Williams’ driver’s career. Max: “I mean the career he has had, many want to achieve. That many years in Formula One as well, and being able to fight for four world championships. So I think it will definitely be a very special moment for him and I think, in general, the Brazilian Grand Prix is always very special and a great track and a great atmosphere to be at.”
Talking of the Grand Prix, rain is expected, potentially aiding the Red Bulls. “You always try to win, but I haven’t really experience a lot of mixed conditions here in Brazil. Of course I’ve seen a lot on the TV. But it will be interesting like always. I really enjoyed it last year and hopefully with some rain coming in it would be even more interesting, so I’m looking forward to the weekend”, explains Max.
Halfway through the press conference, F1’s race director, Charlie Whiting, joined the drivers in the press conference to deal with the elephant in the room resulting from the Mexican Grand Prix. What is Whiting’s opinion on Lewis not being punished for cutting the track, whilst Max did receive a penalty. “I think the principal difference between the two was simply that, in Lewis’ case it was felt that he didn’t gain any lasting advantage and it Max’s case, he did. We can show you a couple of videos here just to refresh everyone’s memory: perhaps that will be a help. The first… I think you’re all pretty familiar with it. You can see that Lewis makes a small mistake at the beginning, cuts across, gains significant track advantage but then sets about giving that back immediately. You can see on the straight – or we can see – on the straight between Turns three and four he backs off to 80 per cent throttle to give that advantage back. Because obviously he’s got a significant advantage there. Then, about a minute later, the Safety Car’s deployed and that advantage is gone completely. So, the stewards felt no lasting advantage."
"On the other hand, the case with Max and Sebastian, if Max had done the same thing on the straight between turns three and four, he would certainly have lost the place. I think that’s why the stewards felt that this deserved a penalty because the driver had gained a lasting advantage. That’s the fundamental difference between the two incidents in the eyes of the stewards."
Max does not agree with Whiting: “Well of course I don’t agree with the decision but it doesn’t really make a lot of difference, does it? I’ve got a penalty. I think if you give penalties, give it to both or you don’t give any penalties. But I think what we maybe need to change for the future is that once you go off it should be a penalty on its own instead of the stewards interfering with that to decide a penalty. I think we need to come up with a solution that, once you go off, that should be the penalty on its own."
Another topic up for debate were Sebastian Vettel’s rude language on the team radio. Max was also asked to give his opinion on the matter: “I think when you’re in the heat of the moment and you have a radio available you can say bad things. But it’s the same if, let’s say you give a microphone to a football player. Imagine how many words are coming out there during a game. Or another sport, it doesn’t need to be football… rugby, whatever. So I think it’s just, yeah, with the radio around you it’s pretty dangerous. So, I think maybe you shouldn’t broadcast it. That’s another solution. Because you know, we are driving on the limit, in some good fights and then, you know the adrenaline is going really high. So maybe in the future, if it’s bad for the younger generation, just don’t broadcast it.”
With only two races remaining the battle for the championship is heating up. Are the Red Bulls going to intervene in the fight for the title? ”For sure. Imagine you tell your team like ‘now I’m going to stay out of the fight, I’m just going to cruise round behind them.’ They wouldn’t be happy as well. You always treat it with respect, you never try to hit each other but that’s already the whole season when you try to pull a move on them or when you are in that position. There is the same approach.”
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