F1 News
Here's why Max Verstappen loves Imola so much
Max Verstappen is an F1 purist. The Red Bull Racing driver loves tracks like Spa, Suzuka and certainly Imola; where the gravel is always close by, and a mistake is unforgivable. This weekend, the Dutchman escaped unscathed despite a few issues in practice. Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez weren't as lucky and ended up in the wall after small mistakes.
"Honestly, I think it's great," Verstappen gave his perspective of the historic circuit. "You get punished if you go wide. You don't need to look and think is my tyre over the white line or not, because of the changes that we made with the FIA to paint wider lines. Honestly, it's just a fantastic track. I wish we had 24 of those on the calendar.
Verstappen's F1 passion began through old-school tracks
Verstappen continued: "We go through a lot of tracks that don't really excite me, but this is unbelievable. In a qualifying lap, this is how it should be. There are a few old-school tracks that we have remaining on the calendar, and they are always very exciting. That's also what I felt a lot when I started racing and watching F1. We need more of those!"
Lando Norris, who starts from second on Sunday, is also fond of Imola. "Like Max said, it's just the fact that you have to think about white lines when you're trying to drive and you're trying to look where the white line is relative to your tyre and guess. It's just something we should not have to think about. It's more down to the driver just taking the risk and kind of committing to corners, especially on a track like this."
Norris continued: " I think it will be even more exciting as much as I'm not the biggest fan. It's like a sprint race, you know, one FP1 like this. It's a bigger challenge for everyone and the drivers to find the limit without making too many big mistakes. I think it's a direction we can go in for more of the tracks. Imola is always a special track. So it's going to be better here." Norris concluded.