Max Verstappen was also surprised by Red Bull’s decision to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after just two races. Verstappen does not want to reveal his exact reaction to team boss Christian Horner. However, his ‘liking’ of a critical note on Instagram by Giedo van der Garde, he says, speaks volumes.
Since the Chinese GP, nearly two weeks ago, frank discussions have taken place between Verstappen and Red Bull’s (technical) leadership. They discussed the remarkable and swift driver swap, the issues with the RB21, and a host of other matters. The four-time world champion, as usual, spoke his mind in no uncertain terms.
However, on the eve of the Grand Prix in Japan, he does not want to disclose exactly what he said. “I shared my reaction with the team. Not just about the swap, but about everything. They know how I feel. But sometimes,” he says, “it’s not necessary to share everything publicly.” Hence, he leaves it at that, albeit with one exception. His decision to ‘like’ Giedo van der Garde’s critical post on Instagram was a conscious one. “I thought the text was good, so I think that speaks for itself.” He laughs: “It wasn’t a mistake…”
The discussion about the driver swap remained limited. Verstappen, like his employer, has other concerns. Red Bull’s challenger this year, the RB21, is underperforming so far. “The main problem is that the car is not where we want it to be, it’s a combination of many things. We need to find a better balance and more speed. But everyone knows that, everyone is focused on it and everyone is doing their best to make the car faster,” he believes.
A more competitive, stable car would, according to Verstappen, also make life better for his teammates. “Then the second car will ‘come to you'”, he believes. So far, Red Bull has not managed to fix the problems that emerged early last year, although Verstappen says ‘everyone was convinced in the last half year where we needed to look’.
From Japan, his teammate is Tsunoda. Verstappen naturally wishes him all the best. They spoke to each other at a demonstration in Tokyo on Wednesday. He hopes that the Japanese driver can control and perform with the capricious RB21. He doesn’t have any golden tips for him. “He has to discover it for himself, my experience can be very different from his. I focus on myself, what I need to do and what I’m paid for. What happened, happened. I don’t care what others think of it, we need to look at ourselves,” he believes. “We put ourselves in this situation, we have to solve it ourselves now.”
