Max in Baku: 'We've always been fast here'

Published on 10 June 2022 by Stefan Meens

The next race on the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship calendar is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The streets of Baku are not Max Verstappen’s happiest of hunting grounds. The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was leading the race last year, until a tyre failure a few laps before the end robbed the Dutchman of a win.

Nevertheless, the reigning champion is keen to bounce back from a challenging weekend in Monaco a fortnight ago. “My fate for the race was already decided on Saturday when we had the red flag in qualifying. It means I was the second car in the race and that’s how we handled the strategy. We had a bit of luck with the backmarkers, but you sometimes need that in Monaco.”

“I was obviously disappointed with the red flag in Q3, but that’s the risk on a street circuit. It happened to me twice in Monaco and also last year here in Baku. It’s okay, I still lead the championship with two DNFs. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

Looking ahead to this weekend’s event, Max said: “We’ve had a lot of bad luck here in Baku. Not just last year, but also when me and Daniel crashed. We’ve always been quick, but we've had problems. This year we’re racing with the new cars and I do enjoy this track. There’ll be a lot of wind so we’ll see how it goes.”

Last year’s unfortunate end to Max’ race, a tyre blow-out with four laps to go, does not affect the Dutchman’s approach. “It’s a race like all others. We’ll try to find the right balance and we’ll try to win the race. We couldn’t do anything about that DNF last year, so there’s no point thinking about it. We’re using completely different tyres currently so everything is different.”

Contest GP Azerbaijan: win a by Max signed RBR Driver Cap 2022!