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albers on red bull and horner afraid of verstappen because their holdout

'Horner and Red Bull are mega scared of Verstappen as he is their only holdout'

22 July at 15:30
3
  • Ludo van Denderen

After months of warnings to his team - which in his eyes were ignored - Max Verstappen exploded with anger during and after the Hungarian Grand Prix about the path being taken by Red Bull Racing. In no uncertain terms, the world champion expressed his dissatisfaction with the race - in which strange tactical choices were made - as well as the persistent lack of performance of his RB20. Christijan Albers, a former F1 driver himself, said in the Telegraaf podcast that he could understand his compatriot's annoyance.

According to Albers, Red Bull has brought the current, sportingly bad period entirely upon itself. The problem according to the current analyst? Sergio Perez. "You always want to have the best driver in the car, because he will bring you the final, three-four tenths. I think Red Bull has been muddling along with Perez for too long. They threw a lot away with that. That's my personal opinion."

That sounds strange because the Mexican is obviously not involved in the design and construction of the car. But: "If you have a driver there who gets 2.5 or three tenths on his thunder from Max, at least you have the connection. And then you can also create more peace in such a team. I just feel that Red Bull and [team boss Christian] Horner are mega scared of Max, because that's the only grip and hold they have."

Red Bull has 'too much faith' in Verstappen

According to Albers, Red Bull's underestimation of the situation can be traced back to how good Verstappen is. "The team has too much confidence that Max just flashes past everywhere. but it was Hungary, where it is not easy to overtake. In a race like that you can boil with anger, because you continuously come back on track and you have lost ground," Albers understood Verstappen's tantrums.

This article was written in collaboration with Ben Stevens.