Verstappen thought it looked 'stupid': 'Almost looked like amateurs'

Red Bull Content Pool

General

verstappen in press conference after qualifying austria
30 June 2023 at 18:06
2
  • Toby McLuskie

Max Verstappen himself lost time several times in qualifying, but in the end he conquered pole position. The fact that so many drivers had to start all over again after a lap on Friday because they ended up just a bit too much off track, Verstappen does not really think it is an advertisement for Formula 1. He believes it is a bit of a strange sight, especially for the viewers.

Many lap times scrapped

"It's super hard to judge around here. If you hit it [the corner] slightly wrong, the car immediately drops away from you or understeers and then it's super easy to go over the white line," Verstappen told the post-qualifying press conference. "I think today looked very silly. It almost looked like we were amateurs out there, the amount of lap times that were getting deleted."

The fact that so many lap times were taken off was strange to Verstappen and he had not seen it coming either. The Dutchman does not seem entirely happy with how the race management has met. "Some of them were so marginal. We spoke about it in the briefing before, that when it's very marginal, it's impossible to judge, if it's out or in and they were still getting deleted. So I don't think it was a good look today."

That drivers should just keep driving inside the white lines if they want to avoid this discussion, Verstappen thinks is too short of the mark. "Well, if it was that easy, then you can take my car and try it, but probably you won't even get up to speed in time. It is super tricky and I think today showed that," he said.

Solution to track limits

The world championship leader finds it difficult to present an immediate solution. After all, it is not just Formula 1 racing at the Red Bull Ring. "Of course, a lot of the tracks we share with MotoGP or bike championships in general and of course, they want something else outside of the kerbs. For us, putting gravel there is fine but for a bike, it's a bit different. So we need to think about maybe a different solution."