F1 News
Villeneuve sees strange situation for Verstappen: 'Not even fighting hard'
- Ludo van Denderen
Jacques Villeneuve sees a strange situation unfolding with Max Verstappen. The 1997 Formula 1 World Champion has noted some observations from Verstappen's actions during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Dutchman finished in fifth, one place behind Lando Norris who worked his way up from P15 on the grid.
Max Verstappen hasn't won a Formula 1 race since the Spanish Grand Prix in June. An unprecedentedly long period for the Dutchman, who dominated Formula 1 in recent years with his Red Bull Racing team.
A fifth place was the maximum Verstappen could achieve in Baku on Sunday. Although the race pace of teammate Sergio Perez proved that there was at least a bit more potential in the RB20, Verstappen did not manage to match it due to a wrongly chosen setup. After the race - in which his rival Lando Norris finished one place ahead of him - Verstappen looked mostly resigned, Villeneuve concluded.
After the Canadian watched an interview with Verstappen, Villeneuve observed. "He sounds downbeat. He doesn't fight that hard. Even on the radio, you barely hear him. So something has changed. It's as if he knows he hasn't won. He knows that it's not driving like he wants, now his teammate was even a lot quicker than him. That's a very strange situation," Villeneuve concluded on Sky Sports.
Verstappen saw an improvement himself
Verstappen himself said after the Grand Prix that he expected to be back in contention for wins soon. He saw the signs of that in Azerbaijan. "Okay, admittedly we did not win. But Checo was competing for the win. So I think from now on we can constantly compete for wins if we know how to improve the car step by step, after our findings from Monza," the Dutchman told GPblog.
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton
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