Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde pointed out that Max Verstappen seems to perform better when he's angry.
Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen was super angry following the unlucky qualifying session for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Before the weekend in Brazil, the battle for the Drivers' Championship was much closer than it is now, and knowing that he would get a 5-second penalty for a new engine, Verstappen had to qualify as high as possible.
The Dutchman looked like the fastest man on the track in the tricky rainy conditions but was caught out with a red flag and knocked out of Q2, which meant he had to start the Grand Prix from P17.
What Verstappen wasn't happy with was how the race control waited with the red flag for multiple drivers to set faster times, which pushed him out of the top ten. Speaking to the media in Brazil after qualifying, he was obviously very annoyed:
"If a guy goes straight into the wall, it is a straight red. I don't understand why you need to take 30, 40 seconds for a red flag to come out... I don't care in all honesty, it is so stupid to talk about. It's ridiculous."
Nevertheless, as we know, the Dutchman went on to show why he is a triple World Champion and why he deserves his fourth title as well. After starting from P17, he won the race by more than 19 seconds ahead of everyone.
Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde believes that the anger fueled Max Verstappen's performance during the race. He said as per GpBlog:
"I know Max and Jos (his father) very well. But I know one thing: when they get angry, especially Max, he performs better."
"I don't know how he does it, but you saw [in Brazil] from the beginning that he was on a mission. And that, for me, is incredible to see because he is super talented."
"The race pace he has is super nice to see, but when he gets angry, it's really something else. The lion comes out then, and he performs even better. That's very nice to see."
When the former F1 driver was asked whether the 2024 could be the triple World Champion's best season in Formula 1 so far, he replied:
"That depends a bit. At the beginning, everyone thought it would be the same kind of season as last year, but then other teams caught up."
"Ferrari was strong, McLaren made a huge step, and then it became really interesting because you saw that Red Bull was under pressure; they were losing against the rest."
"We know that Max is a very strong driver, but I also think he put the team together and, on the other hand, drove extremely well."
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