‘Max goes over the limit, he wants too much’

Michelle Foster
Max Verstappen climbing out of his RB18. Australia April 2022

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen climbing out of his RB18 in the team's garage. Australia April 2022

Max Verstappen was “over the limit” in qualifying for the Australian GP, ruining his chances of taking pole position says Helmut Marko.

The Austrian admitted he had hoped that winning last year’s Drivers’ Championship title would have brought “some calmness” to Verstappen’s style.

This year’s championship has seen Verstappen and Charles Leclerc emerge as the two drivers to beat.

But while Leclerc has twice got the better of Verstappen on grand prix Sundays, it is fair to say that the Dutchman’s Red Bull has also twice got the better of him with retirements in Bahrain and Australia. In both races he was running P2 behind Leclerc.

That has left Verstappen down in sixth place in the Drivers’ standings, the 24-year-old on 25 points, 46 behind Leclerc.

Verstappen is also losing in the qualifying competition, the Dutchman yet to put his RB18 on pole position with Leclerc twice P1 and Sergio Perez beating them both to the coveted grid slot in Saudi Arabia.

Marko, though, reckons Verstappen missed out in Australia through his own over exuberance.

“He goes over the limit, he wants too much,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor said as per formula1news.co.uk.

“That didn’t work out here in the last sector.

“We thought that with the World Championship title there would be some calmness from him, but he probably needs another title so that he doesn’t go into qualifying with so much pressure.”

Verstappen, however, blamed the car.

“Not good. I didn’t really feel good in the car the whole weekend so far.

“I think there’s not been one lap when I actually felt confident, so a bit of a struggle.

“Of course, second is still a good result, but just not feeling that great to go to the limit. We’ll try to analyse it.

 

“For me this weekend so far it’s been all over the place. I think also as a team we want more.”

Alas Verstappen didn’t get that in the race, retiring while running up in second place.

 

PlanetF1 verdict

 

Winning the title hasn’t brought ‘calmness’ to Max

Red Bull's Helmut Marko has admitted that he thought Max Verstappen winning the championship last year would bring "some calmness" to his driving.