Max Verstappen (7th): “A few fundamental things we need to change”

The hopes of the many fans of local hero Max Verstappen that Red Bull Racing would make the right changes ahead of the Grand Prix qualifying session to give the four-time world champion a chance of a good result were not fulfilled. The Dutchman could not manage better than seventh place, trailing world champion Lando Norris’s pole time by just under four-tenths of a second.

Verstappen said dejectedly: “Unfortunately, the car hasn’t changed, so I had the same balance issues that made life difficult for me yesterday. To be honest, there wasn’t much more in it. It didn’t feel as though I hadn’t made the most of the car’s potential. And, of course, we’re not where we want to be.”

The 28-year-old does not expect a quick fix for some of the problems either. He emphasised: “There are a few fundamental issues with the car that we need to change and will hopefully sort out for next year. Apart from that, we must, of course, try to find a bit more performance. We’ll see in the coming races whether that works out.”

However, Verstappen made it clear that he isn’t frustrated. “It’s not that frustrating, because we’ve basically been struggling with the same issues all year. So it’s nothing unusual or new that’s suddenly cropped up,” said the 71-time Grand Prix winner, referring to the downsides of his Grand Prix car. “It’s the same issues with the car’s balance that I already had in the sprint. Unfortunately, the major changes we made didn’t have the desired effect,” he noted in his usual dry manner.

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