"His start wasn't so good at all, but he brakes much later than the rest."

The former Formula 1 driver clarifies in the podcast of De Telegraaf what played a part in the unfortunate incident in which Verstappen lost control of his car, even before the race had started well and truly. "A new set of rain tyres still has an upper layer, a first layer on the tyre that still has to go, that just takes a lap or a half before it comes off. It's bacon and bacon smooth. That's why the first lap on new rain tyres is like driving on ice". Verstappen drove on green intermediates.

Power of Verstappen

Steps damaged his front suspension and lost his nose but through some teamwork the team managed to repair the car, just seconds before the warm-up lap. Albers then saw the Dutchman's great talent in the race. Whether the car suffers from understeer or oversteer, the Limburger always squeezes the maximum out of the car, and often a bit more. "He is a racer but can also adapt to the character of the car. That is the strength of Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton has that too, Vettel can have that too. Then you look at other drivers and you see a big difference."

"In addition, towards the first corner, you could see Max braking twenty metres later than the rest and he's therefore faster and still overtaking Vettel with less grip. His start wasn't so good at all, he brakes much later". The former Formula 1 driver continues: "It could also have been driven with a steering wheel that was a bit written down because they replaced the steering rod without being able to measure it very precisely. That works very closely. A lucky thing in case of an accident would be that the car reacted better as a result", Albers concludes.