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van der garde on problems verstappen bolide in austin

Are 'problems' with Verstappen's RB19 fixable before sprint race?

21 October 2023 at 20:01

Max Verstappen spoke of 'issues' after the sprint shootout. Fortunately for the Dutchman, those issues did not stop him from setting the fastest time. Giedo van der Garde has more information on exactly what Verstappen was complaining about.

According to Van der Garde - who spoke briefly to Verstappen after the sprint qualifying session - the problems are not ones that cannot be solved for the rest of the weekend.

"It's the driveability," the analyst told Viaplay. "It's about the moment you get on the gas, so the car doesn't quite do what you want. It's settings you have to work with. Hopefully, they can fix that in a moment. As you come out of a corner, and it [the car] doesn't do what you want: that's not really nice. You can lose a lot of time with that."

So major consequences for the sprint race and Grand Prix do not seem likely to result from the fault. Van der Garde is confident that Verstappen's engineers will fix the problem. "Certainly, they are just electronics. In the data, they can have a good look at what the issue is, and then they will definitely fix that."