Verstappen Will Make Mistakes When Put Under Pressure Ferrari Team Principal Asserts

Monday, 04 December 2023 at 08:00

Updated at Monday, 04 December 2023 at 14:43

Scuderia Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur recently stated he thinks Verstappen will make mistakes, but somebody has to put him under pressure.

What is exceptional about Max Verstappen's 2023 season is that he did not make any mistakes throughout all the 22 races of the season 19 of which he won.

Team principal Ferrari - one of the closest rivals of Red Bull Racing, recently addressed a few words of praise Verstappen's way.

While nobody could come close to beating the three-time World Champion throughout 19 races of the season, Frederic Vasseur thinks Ferrari is getting there slowly. As quoted by motorsport.com, he said:

"But I think we are getting a bit closer to him, we are...I don’t want to say putting him under pressure because it is not true, [in Abu Dhabi] he was not under pressure. But he was a bit more under pressure than he was in Zandvoort, or in some other events when he was flying."

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The Ferrari F1 team principal suggested Dutchman is not making mistakes because he wasn't under big enough pressure in 2023.

"There is no doubt on the fact that he was dominating all the season. And the only issue for us is that, as everybody, he will do more mistakes when he will be under pressure."

Vasseur thinks Ferrari was the only team to put pressure on Verstappen, and it was only during the last two races in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, or in Singapore, which is not enough.

"But nobody was able to put him under pressure this season except us at the last two or three events, or except Carlos in Singapore."

Charles Leclerc had a few chances to fight Verstappen during the last two races and he might have even won had there not been an unfortunately timed safety car in Las Vegas. Vasseur concluded:

"And it’s where he started to do some mistakes, or perhaps Red Bull did some mistakes in terms of set-up. We were too far away to put this kind of pressure on them."