The season is not going well for Max Verstappen so far. The Dutchman had to deal with two crashes in the first three races, so the gap to leader Charles Leclerc is now large. Eddie Irvine, however, believes that the driver cannot only blame the peripheral issues, he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
After his failure in Bahrain, Verstappen took revenge in Saudi Arabia. The reigning world champion took the victory and thus crept closer to Leclerc in the world championship. In Australia, however, things went wrong again and he again did not make it to the end of the race.
Verstappen makes too many mistakes in 2022
However, Irvine not only sees that Red Bull Racing is short of speed to actually compete with Ferrari, he also notices that Verstappen is not performing at the top of his game this season. According to the former Formula One driver, Verstappen needs to do something about that soon.
"Personally, I don't believe there is anyone faster than Verstappen. Yet I believe that he just makes too many mistakes. Leclerc just doesn't make those," judged Irvine, who sees that the Dutch driver is in sixth place with 25 points. List leader Leclerc picked up 71 points so far.
Since when is technical issues a mistake ? He WON all races he finished.
Everyone makes mistakes, or there’d be no improvements. It’s not about being perfect it’s how well you fix them. Eddie knows all about mistakes, but I’d love him to point them out specifically. Clearly RB has more car problems than they’ll admit. The only race the car finished, Max won. I’m sure the other 19 drivers would love some mistakes like that. And who says Max is fastest? Leclerc may have been faster all along. The only way to know is to have them in the same car an entire season, on the same tires and same plan.
Most idiotic article seen in long time. Mistakes, crashes.. wonder which races person commenting, saw. It seems more like mind games comments than anything else.
This article lost all credibility in the opening paragraph, there's a difference between a DNF due to a mechanical failure, then a DNF due to a 'crash' For the author of the article: Crash: (of a vehicle) collide violently with an obstacle or another vehicle. "a racing car had crashed, wrecking a safety barrier
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Max hasn’t made any mistakes while Leclerc made so many mistakes last year than he ended up behind his teammate at the end of the year. Leclerc is probably the fastest qualifier on the grid with Max just behind him but Max racecraft is superior to Leclerc’s based on what we’ve seen. Leclerc out qualified Lewis in 2019 - 7 to 6 and even last year he claimed 2 poles. Max is the more polished driver but Leclerc is so skilled and talented - Leclerc is on the cusp of the Lewis/Alonso/Max level.
Max is a beast in wets. So that certainly makes him an all round driver.
True, he is definitely the superior driver in wet/rainy conditions of the current generation of drivers, and by quite a distance. Brazil 2016, Germany 2019 and Imola 2021 are just a few races where this was on full display.
is what i'm seeing real? people are giving verstappen the hamilton treatment from last year!
You can see Max's car is tail happy out some corners which means he is overdriving the car to keep up with Charles. Or using less wing
Nonsense Eddie, the car is making mistakes and also when you in an inferior car you have to push it over the limit to keep up with the Ferrari which then create mistakes like locking up under braking and applying to much throttle which brakes the traction. Any great driver explores the limit of a new car till he gets to know it. The scary thing is Charles is driving under the limit. How fast is that Ferrari then.
I thought the RB was always built around MV? Seems a bit daft all your eggs in one basket (case). Everyone is human and makes mistakes, no- one is perfect so how about giving them ALL some slack??
First off, I’ll admit I am a big fan of Charles, I have been since the lower classes. I truly believe that he, like George, Checo and maybe Alex Albon are future champions. I have much respect for Max as well, but am not a big fan of him. That said, I don’t think Max is doing badly this year, but he (and Checo) are being let down by their cars. Out of their hands for the most part. In my opinion anyway.
How could it be that there's no 1 faster and he can't get pole with the fastest car max lovers complained that Lewis had the fastest car last year which wasn't true too many excuses that why 103 poles and counting is the gold standard
Your frustration looks similar to this.Anti max troll similar to some of the anti-hamie trolls. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6XNLTTiRLqM
103 poles in 345 qualifiers in the fastest car isnt much of a gold standard one would argue. Like I have said many times, the cover to the book appears impressive until you look inside.
Hahahaha what kind of insane troll article is this?? ?? "The season is not going well for Max Verstappen so far. The Dutchman had to deal with two crashes in the first three races..." VERY curious about those crashes! ? They mistake Max for Latifi or Schumavher or something? ? "Personally, I don't believe there is anyone faster than Verstappen. Yet I believe that he just makes too many mistakes." Nice compliment...but what mistakes is he referring to exactly? I cant remember an obvious mistake in any if the three races to be honest ? Elite piece of journalism...
Yes, too many mistakes, which is exactly why he has not won a world championship yet.
More like Verstappen makes little mistakes but is surely not the fastest on one lap pace. Perez is easily matching him on Saturdays in 2022, as most fans/pundits predicted would be the case once the car suits both Redbull drivers.
Even on his bad days he is matching Perez and Sainz. Charles is just tenth or two ahead. Wait for couple of races and once he becomes one with that RB18, Charles will have hard time beating him in Quali and in race. Hamilton has had a taste of it last year.
Remember Perez is at the level of Button on one lap pace, so the expectation is higher on Max to go much much faster. As such, if the first three GPs in 2022 are anything to by, then Max has his work cut out to prove his critics. As for last year, Adrian Newey himself conceded Redbull were the faster package overall but more importantly easier to drive. Max did not have to husttle the car around as much as the Merc drivers. The same scenario we have now in 2022 where the Ferrari is a faster package and a sweet ride.
Newey said that Redbull was an all round package i.e. easier to setup in all conditions much like Ferrari now. Faster not so much. Redbull was only faster on handful of tracks like Baku, Monaco, Bahrain, Spain, Austria, COTA, Zandvoort. Merc had an advantage on all the remaining tracks and Max was hustling his car to match Mercs on those tracks. Currently Max is not able to setup RB18 to his liking. Once that happens (Operating window will increase with updates) it will reflect on the timing sheets. In clean air Charles and Max both pull away immediately in the races from their teammates, so your opinion of Max being slower doesn't make any sense. In an uninterrupted race that gap between Charles-Max and their teammates will only increase, much like Max-Hamilton last year.
Redbull generally works better at higher altitudes because of their best Aero efficiency. i.e Austria, Mexico and Brazil(Merc's spicy engine was just too much for Redbull last year or else it was a guaranteed win for them). You are right about Monaco though.
RBR had an edge at Baku, second Austria race due to weather and tyre compounds chosen for the weekend, Holland and that’s all. Monaco I’m not sure about Bottas effectively qualified 2nd so the Merc had speed it’s just that Hams failed massively (cost him the championship that terrible drive).
Redbull was the overall better package straight off the block coming out from winter tests; all the way untill Silverstone, no doubt about that. Throughout the season probably 2 tenths average faster and easier to drive according to most experts. Evidently, the car had much better steering input and feel, that much is clear. As for driver outright speed, it's best measured on Saturday. For the simple reason that in racetrim there's a lot going on, such as tyre management, being stuck in traffic compromising tyre perfrmance and so on.
The Mercedes’ was clearly faster over the last 4-5 races, by a decent margin. RB had better corner speed and stability under braking. The Mercedes’ was also better at following, which was an improvement from the 6 years prior.
Calm down it’s 2-1 in qualifying. Max has been outqualified by a teammate on merit twice since 2018 I believe.
Still a long way to go ofcourse. But look at what Norris is doing to a guy who had a measure of Max over three seasons when they were teammates. Max is a great driver but the problem is that some of you make him seem invincible or some kind of a demi god. So far Perez is proving he is not.
What a stupid statement. Obviously Irvine doesn't watch the races. Verstappen has been flawless.
Eddie doesn't seem sober. Or living a couple of years in the past... Only thing that is correct is that Leclerc is a damn good driver too.
2 crashes??? As far as I know his RB failed to finish twice because of mechanical failure....
"The Dutchman had to deal with two crashes in the first three races" What two crashes?? I'm aware of two DNF's but not two crashes.
A never called a car failing a crash, if your car breakdown in the highway, you also don't speak of a crash, just weird.
If you don't know your sporting terms, better to keep your opinions to yourself, mate
NOBODY calls it a ‘crash out’. A crash means damaged due to contact. That’s why when your car battery dies you don’t call the cops and fill out a crash report. You call your boss and take the bus.
Personally, I don't believe there is anyone faster than Verstappen. Yet I believe that he just makes too many mistakes. Leclerc just doesn't make those," judged Irvine I disagree with Irvine, Max makes little or no mistakes. For me he sometimes is impatient .
I don't see many mistakes either. If anything Max just sometimes wants more out of the car than he can get and pushes it too much.
Max is an intuitive racer with an amazing 'feel' and 'touch'. That makes him one of the quickest drivers I have ever seen. But I really don't believe he possesses a racing brain. Charles, on the other hand, is the real deal - he is strategic, possesses overview, is patient and can play the long game magnificently
I think Max’s ‘problem’ is he makes it seem easy. They’re just very different racers. Charles is better at race preparation while Max is able to strategize during the race. I think he rolls with circumstances better than LeClerc but that doesn’t mean he operates only by feel. You heard him cleverly talking through scenarios over the radio last year. In addition to all their past history in karting, Charles would have been carefully studying Max last year, while Verstappen was only worrying about Hamilton. Max never expected a string of easy championships due to superior machinery, and that lack of presumption proves he has a deep knowledge, beyond his years. Hopefully the one dominant team era is over and we’ll have a new champion every season. It’s much better for the sport. What I’ve seen this year shows that it was Hamilton making mistakes last year, not Max. Let’s see if Leclerc can handle relentless pressure over an entire year, we already know Max can.
Team + car + driver, in that order mate. How long have you been watching Motorsports ?? Even your superMax can't beat that equation
how do you judge whether a driver is faster than the next, when the speed at which they can drive depends on the car's capabilities and not all cars will be at the same level? What is the criteria then for judging who's the fastest when not everyone is on the same playing field? i tend to have an analytical mind so i like to see facts being provided as to back up anyone's claims
The problem for max is he pushes his cars too hard. He brakes late on the inside corner. He races so hard others have to race dangerously. This season because of car limitations that all drivers face, max keeps pushing his car to need more your changes.
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