Max Verstappen may have been pleased with his performance at the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, but the two-time world champion was not happy after finishing second, and called on Red Bull to resolve reliability issues that affected the weekend in Jeddah.
A driveshaft problem knocked Verstappen out in Q2 in qualifying, causing him to start the race 15th. While the Dutch driver came through the field and finished second, some 20 seconds ahead of George Russell – who finished third in the secret race result – he was still less impressed with the weekend, despite the team’s tempestuous pace.
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When asked how long he hoped Red Bull could maintain the gap with the rest of the nine teams, Verstappen replied: “Well, I hope of course it takes a long time. But it’s not just about the pace of the car, we need to make sure we’re reliable without any problems.
“First weekend [in Bahrain] It wasn’t very clean, just because of the big shift in balance from testing to racing at the weekend, and a few other things that were going on in the background, and now again after three positive practice sessions of course I have a problem with qualifying. “
He added, “Of course, I recovered to second place, which is good, and in general the general feeling in the team, everyone is happy, but I personally am not happy, because I am not here in second place.
2023 Saudi Arabia GP Qualification: Max Verstappen Out of Qualifying in Q2 After Car Problem in Jeddah
“Especially when you work so hard also when you go back to the factory to make sure you get here in good shape, make sure everything is in place, and then you have to do a sprint to recover – which I like, I mean I don’t mind doing that – but when you’re fighting For a championship that appears to be between two cars, we have to make sure both cars are reliable.”
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Verstappen was also asked if finishing second was what he envisioned in Sunday’s race, saying: “I’ve never really thought about it, but realistically with or without the safety car, I think P2 was as high as possible.
“The start, it was really hard to follow the first few laps for the cars because of the street circuit, the fast corners, the walls are all so close, you get a kind of tailwind effect, and the car is all over the place.
“After a few laps everything started to settle down a bit better and I could grab them one by one, and the pace was good.
“The safety car of course helped me a little bit to get back into the race, but even then on a restart you lose a lot of time to Checo [Perez], For example. So, as soon as I got into P2, there was a good gap on a track where there aren’t a lot of grades.”
Verstappen was heard late in the race again complaining about a suspected drive shaft problem with his car, and while the team said they couldn’t see the problem, it was still enough for him to stop chasing Perez for the win.
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“I tried to close the gap a little bit, but at some point I picked up this vibration on the driveshaft, at the back,” said Verstappen. “The team couldn’t see anything, but I’m pretty sure there’s something strange going on with the balance since the vibrations started to show up.
“At one point I did the math; I wouldn’t have closed that gap to the finish with only 10 laps left, so I think at some point it’s important to just sit for a second, and not have a problem with the car.”
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