Resigned Verstappen Might Have His 'Future Sorted Out' Says Hill

Wednesday, 18 September 2024 at 16:09

Damon Hill observed signs of resignation in Max Verstappen's voice on team radio in recent races and proposed a possible underlying reason.

Max Verstappen, who is known to be quite short-tempered on the team radio with his engineer, has lately been surprisingly calm, which comes as a surprise amidst Red Bull's misery run in the last couple of race weekends.

Verstappen has struggled with his car a lot and was able to finish on the podium only once in the last five races, while his Championship rival Lando Norris has slowly been catching up.

Despite the increasing pressure, the Dutchman has remained incredibly calm to the point where some pundits and former F1 drivers like Damon Hill suspect something is up. The 1996 Champion said, as per GpBlog:

"I do think there is almost like a resignation with Max. Now, what if that's true? He's normally very feisty with his comments and demanding, and basically saying, 'I can't, I'm not dealing with this, it's just no good, it's got to change.'"

"And he has said a few things, but I think there's almost, maybe he can see that within the team there are such substantial problems that it's no good him just coming on the radio and saying, I'm not happy."

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How does the triple World Champion manage to stay so calm all of a sudden? Hill proposed that the Red Bull Racing F1 driver might have his 'future sorted out,' suggesting that he could be going to a different F1 team.

"There's been all sorts of talk about him talking to other teams. He's got to think of the future. Where's the direction of travel from now on, if Red Bull are not competitive?"

"So those things can… Maybe he's got his future sorted out. Maybe he doesn't have to rant because he knows it's going to change, I don't know."

Jacques Villeneuve Also Suspects "Something Has Changed"

Damon Hill wasn't the only one who found Verstappen's recent demeanor strange. The 1997 Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve made a very similar observation.

Although he didn't conclude that the Red Bull driver might have signed with a different team, Villeneuve also believes Verstappen hasn't been as aggressive as he used to be (both in driving style and on the team radio). He told Sky F1:

"For the last few races sounds downbeat. He's not even feisty in the race and doesn't fight that hard. Even on the radio, we barely hear him."

"Something has changed. It's as if he knows he hasn't won [for a while]; he knows it [the car] is not driving like he wants. Now his team-mate was a lot quicker than him. That's a very strange situation."