Windsor up in arms for Verstappen: 'He has clearly been misquoted'

Windsor in complete agreement with Verstappen

Windsor is not a fan of what he calls "the modern version of Monaco". The reason is that such street circuits only allow for some longer straights and only a few corners. "This is where I think Max Verstappen is absolutely right. He's been obviously completely misquoted and all these quotes have been taken out of context because he said at one point it's 99% show, 1% race," the analyst said on his own YouTube channel.

He continues: "Of course, what he really means by that, I think, is that it's a dumb circuit. There aren't many corners in which you can be a racing driver. It's just all straights. That brings into focus another polarization in Formula 1, which is Max on the one hand saying, I like getting on with the job and doing my job. I don't want to get involved with all this other stuff. It's completely over the top. Then you've got Lewis Hamilton saying, oh, no, I love it all. This is great for Formula 1. It's growing the business. Everything's bigger and better."

Windsor disagrees with Hamilton

So opinions among F1 drivers vary considerably, but Windsor can agree with Verstappen's view. "I actually take Max's position here because A: you're looking at a guy who doesn't believe that necessarily big is better anyway and that we should be continually growing everything. That's the first thing," said the former Williams team manager.

"Then beyond that, what is a good show? Lewis Hamilton, on the one hand, is saying, I'm sure Vegas will produce some good racing. Well, I'm sure it'll produce a lot of overtakes because it's got a lot of straights and we're using two DRS zones. On the other side of the coin, is it actually a great racing circuit for racing drivers? Answer, no," he added.

"There aren't many good corners there. There aren't any medium high speed corners. It's all sort of twiddly bits adjoining long straights, as Max Verstappen said. And I totally sympathise with a racing driver taking that view. I think all credit to Max as the world champion that he's prepared to say that against the mainstream. I think he's absolutely correct."

'Max has a very good point there too'

So, like Verstappen, Windsor is by no means a fan of the F1 circuit in Las Vegas, but the analyst also agrees with his complaints about the show around it. "All this other stuff is demeaning. It's a little bit childish, I think, given the stature of Formula One and how Formula One has evolved since the late 1800s. I think it's over the top," he said.

"And again, I applaud Max Verstappen for saying that because it's not an easy thing for somebody in his position to be against the mainstream and to be negative about Formula One. Yet he's doing it. That's because he's just a pure racer, wants to go racing. Of course, he does his job PR-wise and Red Bull do probably a better job than that than anybody else on the planet. He fits in beautifully with that. But all this other stuff is kind of contrived. I think Max has got a very good point there," Windsor said.