A week on from the late race antics of Verstappen, I have been pondering what goes through his head. First let me start by saying that he is clearly an exceptional racer, his close combat racing can be a bit questionable at times, but he is very talented and away from the track he sounds like he is a genuinely nice down-to-earth guy.
The problem Max has, is he doesn’t like to be told no. It is well documented and reported that when it came to racing, he had a tough up bringing with his father which arguably has made him the talent he is today, but you must wonder if during his childhood he was actually told “no” very often.
I also often wonder about young drivers coming through the ranks and joining F1 early. There are many differences between the junior categories and F1 but one of the biggest, is that F1 is a team sport. That might seem like an obvious statement, but in all the junior series there is no Constructors Championship, that only occurs in F1. So, for the younger drivers it is every man for himself, even for those within a young driver development stable like Red Bull or Mercedes. It’s very cutthroat as you might expect and I wonder if the young drivers get so focused on themselves that when they join F1 its harder for some to transition into playing the team game. I think in some ways the drivers never lose that “look after number 1” mentality, but you ask the teams, and they will tell you, the team comes first, and you obey the teams’ desires.
I remember back in his first season at the then named Torro Rosso team. He was alongside Carlos Sainz, at the Singapore Grand Prix he was asked to let his teammate Sainz through and he flat out refused saying “no” on the radio this was just the start of his insubordination, most recently he was asked to let Sergio Perez past at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and he said no. You can’t do that, the team pays your wages, you are an employee whether you like it or not. I have long had the thought that Max doesn’t really care for the Red Bull team, he is focused on number 1, and you will not change that. To be a World Champion, you must have that selfishness but equally without the team you are nothing.
However, when it comes to handling adversity his first response is to lash out. Maybe that tells you more about his up bringing than anything, but I am no psychiatrist. We all know that his philosophy of defence is “either you back out or we crash” but when someone does the same to him, he gets riled up.
That’s exactly what happened with Russell, he felt Russell forced him off the track which irritated him, then when he was told to give the place back the red mist descended even further. Casing point, someone has told him “no” and he’s thrown his toys out the pram. The fact that his first reaction was to ram into Russell should have been met with swift harsh punishment, you can’t start letting these things slide when they travel at the speed they do. Verstappen got a more lenient penalty than Russell got at Monaco for corner cutting, which is absurd. In my opinion it should have been a disqualification. This kind of behaviour should be nipped in the bud and met with swift harsh punishment.
It’s not the first time we have seen this from Verstappen, he did it in Austria last season to Lando Norris, he has done it previously to Hamilton in Monza and I am sure it will happen again. If they are harsher with their punishment, maybe it will make him think again about doing it in the future.
I have always wondered how Red Bull handle him behind the scenes and I suspect they don’t really bother especially as now with him being the main points scorer, they probably want to try and keep him sweet and stop him from leaving. However, in this season when they are struggling more than ever with that second car/ driver, they are relying on Max more to score the championship points. The actions and penalty for Verstappen in Spain was more detrimental to the team than it was for him. There is a real chance this season Red Bull will finish 4th in the Constructors Championship. With the difficulties they are having with this year’s car, I can see there being more tantrums on the horizon, which will become more costly for Red Bull.
Let me know what you think.
The DRS Zone 
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