'My Car Is Very Difficult To Drive': Says Verstappen After P5 In Baku

Sunday, 15 September 2024 at 21:00

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen complained about his car after finishing only fifth in the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Although Red Bull's car looked much better in Azerbaijan than it did during the previous race at Monza, Max Verstappen could not extract as much from it as his teammate Sergio Perez.

The Dutchman decided to make a couple of last-minute changes to his setup before qualifying, which turned out to be a wrong decision as it damaged both his qualifying and race performance.

Starting from P6 on Sunday, Verstappen didn't have enough performance to progress further up the grid, and if it had not been for the collision between Carlos Sainz and Perez, he would have finished seventh.

Ultimately, he crossed the finish line in P5 - behind his Championship rival Lando Norris, who started way further behind (from P15). According to GpBlog, the 26-year-old F1 driver told ViaPlay after the race:

“"Yes, just very bad again. No speed at all and on the medium tires more degradation. On the hard tires, it was a bit better, but then I got stuck behind Albon and Lando."”

Max Verstappen exiting a corner, closely followed by George Russell's Mercedes in the background during the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen closely followed by George Russell during the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

“"Then the brakes overheated, so I took a step back. After that, the speed did get a bit better relative to the lead, but my car is very difficult to drive."”

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the fourth out of the last five races where Max Verstappen didn't stand on the podium and the seventh consecutive race without a victory for the Dutchman. He continued:

“"During qualifying I already noticed that the things we had added to the car didn't work at all. I couldn't brake at all, I couldn't attack corners either."”

“"A wheel came off the ground all the time, so every time in all the slow corners, I was bouncing in all directions. It was like a go-kart."”

On top of everything, Verstappen was also noted for "virtual safety car infringement" after the chequered flag. Although the race was over, the virtual safety car was still on.

This meant that the Red Bull driver technically shouldn't have overtaken other F1 cars (which he did) even after crossing the finish line. Ultimately, though, he escaped only with a warning from the stewards.