Max after the Friday in Bahrain: 'Pretty okay'
Published on 27 November 2020 by Mike Motilall
After the first two free practices for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen spoke with Olav Mol for the show Formule 1 Café, which is aired during the Formula 1-season every Friday at 22.30 on Ziggo Sport channel 14 and Ziggo Sport Select.
Regarding Olav’s remark that Bahrain is not a track that Max has had a great many successes, Max replies by saying: “We have had quite a few retirements or problems.” And the layout is quite daunting? “The tarmac is very rough and there is very little grip, also because of the sand.”
The first free practice looked a bit scruffy. Max: “We had a bit of testing to do with the car which didn’t work out well or didn’t even work how it should have and that’s why we didn’t run that much. That’s a shame of course. Actually it only started for me at the second free practice.”
It was also mandatory for you to drive on test tyres during the second free practice? “I immediately had flat spots.” Did you do that on purpose? Max: “You needed to do six laps on those tyres. I floored it a bit and spun.”
I checked on Google Maps for ‘understeer city’ but couldn’t find it. “That had to do with the parts we were testing on the car. It’s very frustrating to drive then, because I already knew, before we even went into the session, that it would not work. You then actually lose the entire session. In the end we also couldn’t fix it so that was more or less a letdown.”
You did your quickest time on the mediums in second practice? “I had some traffic in Turns 9 and 10 with Gasly. Then in Turn 11, I had some understeer and ran a bit wide.”
As a Formula 1-driver you guys are world champions in multitasking. Do you actually see the deltas on your steering wheel? “I look at that on every straight. I find it helpful to know, especially when you are running on different tyre sets. During qualifying in Q3 you can feel for yourself if you have taken a corner well or not, but sometimes with a different type of tyre it’s nice to have a reference.”
All-in all are you satisfied with this Friday? “Yes, it’s pretty okay. There are always stuff that can be better, but in general it went reasonably well. Mercedes is still the team to beat but that was to be expected on a track like this, where there is little grip and the rear of the car needs to be very strong. They have sorted that out pretty well and of course with more power than we have. Naturally that helps on the straights here as well. But from our side we cannot complain about what we missed during first practice.”
Contest GP Bahrain: win a by Max signed Red Bull Racing driver cap!
