Max Verstappen makes ‘turtle’ admission as Italian GP tactic comes to light

Max Verstappen admitted that it was not much fun at Monza when rivals cars were bypassing him as if he was a “turtle”.

However, it was not all doom and gloom, as the Red Bull RB22 is good on the brakes, allowing Verstappen to have some fun with that strength of his car. That being said, Verstappen stressed that there is work to do for Red Bull in regards to Mercedes’ deployment advantage.

Max Verstappen attacked the Monza braking zones

Despite launching from the third row of the grid at Monza, Verstappen was able to insert himself in the battle out front with the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Verstappen was in the lead of the race by Lap 12, but soon had the Mercedes pair on his tail.

Antonelli had worked his way up from the tenth row in an almighty recovery drive, after taking a back-of-the-grid engine penalty.

Verstappen was unable to keep the Mercedes behind, as Russell and Antonelli eventually made it a two-way fight for the win, Antonelli the victor on home soil.

Verstappen did, however, bring his Red Bull home in a very respectable third place.

Verstappen was asked how much enjoyment he got in the car, put to him that he was in something of a lost situation with lacking straight-line pace versus Mercedes.

That part was not fun, but Verstappen opened up on the braking tactic which the RB22 allows. It was a tactic which ensured some enjoyment behind the wheel at Monza.

“Yeah, I mean, to be honest, not a lot when people just drive by you like you’re a turtle,” Verstappen responded on the enjoyment aspect.

“But, yeah, just send it back around the outside. The car is good on the brakes, so that helps, so good confidence to attack the braking zones. Two times in the start I managed to do that in Turn 2 and 4.

“I mean, it is enjoyable, but at the same time frustrating, you know. But I just try to maximise everything that I can.”

In addition to struggling against the Mercedes deployment, Verstappen also suggested that the overtake mode electrical boost was too powerful at Monza.

Verstappen felt that left him a sitting duck once he reached the race lead.

Like the DRS overtaking aid of old, overtake mode can only be activated when a driver is within a second of the car ahead, at the designated point.

“I think it was quite clear during the race that we just can’t keep up with the deployment of the Mercedes-powered cars, and that is, of course, on a track like Monza, very tough,” Verstappen admitted.

“Of course, with the overtake mode it looked quite promising, but as soon as I got in the lead, yeah, it was very hard to defend. And that has been a bit my problem throughout the whole race.

“Even when we had the VSC, we boxed, had better tyres, I’m overtaking cars, but as soon as they can hang in that overtake mode, it’s just too powerful for us to actually really defend that, even on better tyres. So, it took me a while even to clear the McLarens.

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“But for us to be on the podium, I think after a very difficult weekend in Zandvoort, where the car was not really to my liking, yeah, we managed to have a strong turnaround from Friday to Saturday and the car was definitely in a better window.

“But we still have a few bits and areas that we know need to be better, plus, yeah, the obvious deployment on the straights.”

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