Verstappen After Abu Dhabi: 'Most Important Thing' Was To Apogogize To Piastri

Monday, 09 December 2024 at 16:28

Max Verstappen revealed he went to apologize to Oscar Piastri right after the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix because of their incident on the opening lap.

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya previously warned McLaren drivers to be careful with Max Verstappen, who had nothing to lose when going into the first corner at Yas Marina Circuit on the opening lap of the final race of the season.

As it turned out, Montoya was right, but Oscar Piastri wasn't careful enough. Max Verstappen went for a dive down his inside; Piastri kept slowly turning into the corner, seemingly not seeing the Dutchman, and the two drivers collided and spun.

This first corner incident put the Australian driver in last place which definitely wasn't ideal for his team, which still had to bring home as many points as possible to secure the title.

The four-time world champion, who received a ten-second penalty for the incident, explained what happened from his point of view as he spoke to the media after the Grand Prix:

"The launch was good, and then I tried to grab the inside. And I quickly realized once I committed to it, that the gap was closing."

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"I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn't want imagine of course a crash with Oscar."

"But unfortunately, we still clipped each other, but I already apologized to Oscar. There's no way you want it to happen. And especially not with him, he's a great guy. It happened, it's just a bit unfortunate."

"For me, the most important thing that I had to do is just apologize to Oscar, because I have nothing to gain, nothing to lose."

"I went for it. It didn't work out. And especially also for him, that we both spun, it's not nice. He's a friend of mine, so I don't want to have any weird feelings or whatever going into the break."

Luckily for Verstappen, Lando Norris ultimately managed to stay in front, and by winning the race, he secured the Championship title for McLaren.

If McLaren hadn't won the title, the Dutchman would have upset not only one driver but the whole Papaya army - the McLaren fan club. Also speaking to the media after the last race of the season, Piastri said:

"He [Verstappen] came and apologized straight away, and the stewards deemed it was a penalty."

"So, you know, we go again next year. Obviously, it was a tough race from then on, but again, we achieved our main target today. That's all that matters."