Verstappen reflects on giant blunder at COTA: 'What did I do?'
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Max Verstappen rarely makes big mistakes in Formula One, but the Dutchman is also only human. Talking to Antonio Felix da Costa on Instagram back in 2020, Verstappen admitted a mistake he made at the Circuit of the Americas, the next track the F1 grid travels to this season.
Verstappen: 'Luckily, I had to retire the car'
Back at the 2016 US Grand Prix, once Verstappen's engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase told the Dutchman to "push now, push now," the Dutchman thought that is how he was let known to pit for a new set of tyres. However, once he entered the pit lane, no one was there to switch his tyres, and he lost approximately 13 seconds.
"I was like, "Oh, my God, what did I just do?" I'm in the pit. I'm like, "Guys, Guys, I'm pitting, I'm in the pit", and then all a sudden you see, like, all the guys, like, running out. I don't know, they were taking tires, random tyres. Yes, the pit stop was like, eight, nine second," Verstappen gave an insight on how he felt when the incident happened.
Verstappen eventually had to retire from the Grand Prix, after he had problems with his engine. "Then within like, three laps, my gear, my I don't know, something died, so my car retired. Helmut, of course, pretty angry at me. I f***** up, like I thought he called me in," Verstappen added.
"I mean, what can you say? Like you cannot hide it, and yeah sure I made a mistake. people make mistakes. We're not robots, right? But you have to tell them. And he (Marko) appreciates that. He hates it when people like try to make excuses," Verstappen concluded about the aftermath of the Grand Prix that happened now eight years ago.
This article was written in collaboration with Jeroen Immink
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