Max Verstappen makes eye-catching set-up admission as Perez struggles at Red Bull

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen in action in the RB20

Max Verstappen has opened up on his driving style, explaining other drivers might not enjoy the particular demands he has from his car.

The Dutch driver has led the Red Bull team for several years now, with various teammates struggling to come close or match what he’s capable of getting out of his machinery – something which has frequently been attributed to Verstappen’s particular demands of the car to suit his driving style.

Max Verstappen: I like the front end to turn well

Given that the theory surrounding the discrepancy in performances between himself and his teammates centres on his driving style, does Verstappen himself believe that his demands are unique to the point of other drivers being unable to cope with them?

It’s long been denied by the team that the Red Bull is built around Verstappen’s style in particular, but that Verstappen appears able to drive around issues to get lap time out of the car given to him.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Formula.hu, Verstappen said what works for him might not work for everyone.

“For my part, I just like the front end to turn well,” he said.

“I like it to turn quickly and very firmly, but of course, everything has to be balanced.

“You can’t put everything on the front axle and expect the back of the car to follow. You have to try to find the happy medium, but of course, it’s possible that my medium is different from others.

“Everyone has their own driving style, so what works for me might not work for someone else.

“But other drivers drive differently and they are also very fast. So for me, it’s quite natural the way my car behaves because I like that kind of car, but maybe for others, it’s not the right way. That’s how it works.”

Verstappen’s ease of working with the Red Bull is in complete contrast to Sergio Perez, whose struggles to keep pace have been attributed to his unhappiness with the overall balance of the car – something Verstappen appears better suited to cope with.

Pierre Gasly, who drove for Red Bull for the first half of 2019 before being demoted to Toro Rosso, said Perez is struggling for feel behind the wheel.

“He is a good driver, everybody knows it but he doesn’t seem to get his things together, whether it’s himself or coming from the team. I don’t know and can’t really comment on that,” he said.

“Ultimately, his problem at the moment is he doesn’t feel the car.

“Whenever you feel strong with a car you have, for whatever reason, an off weekend. Next weekend, you come back, you feel good, you put the strong laps in and you don’t even think about it.

“But he just doesn’t seem to be able to get the performance out of it, whether it’s coming from him or the team, I don’t know.

“But there’s clearly something that is missing at the moment between the two.”

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Former Red Bull driver opens up on Max Verstappen driving style

Alex Albon, Verstappen’s teammate from the middle of 2019 until the end of 2020, has thrived away from Red Bull machinery, having struggled to figure out how to drive the RB15 and RB16, and explained last year where he felt Verstappen’s driving style differed from his own.

“Everyone has a driving style, I would say my driving style is a bit more on the smooth side, but I like a car that has a good front-end, so quite sharp, quite direct,” he said.

“Max does too, but his level of sharp and direct is a whole different level. It’s eye-wateringly sharp.

“To give people kind of maybe an explanation of what that might feel like, if you bump up the sensitivity [on a computer game] completely to the max and you move that mouse and it’s just darting across the screen everywhere, that’s kind of how it feels. It becomes so sharp that it makes you a little bit tense.

“What ended up happening was, especially during my year, you start off being a little bit behind, but not by much, and then as the season goes on, Max wants this front-end in the car, he wants his car to be sharper, sharper,” the former Red Bull driver added.

“As it goes sharper and sharper, he goes quicker and quicker, and for you to catch up you have to start taking a little bit more risk. You might be a couple of tenths behind one session, just try a little bit more, ‘OK, I’ve gone off, I’ve had a crash’, and you’ve got to restart.

“Then you’ve lost a little bit of confidence, it takes a little bit more time, that gap is growing a little bit, and the next time you try and go out and do another job, [it’s] another spin or another whatever – it just starts to snowball. Every time the car becomes sharper and sharper, you start to become more tense.

“It’s like any sport, if you start to not be in that flow state, and you’re having to really think about it, and every time you go into a corner, you don’t know how it’s going to react, you don’t have that kind of… It’s purely the confidence in the car, the flow. It doesn’t work, it never works.”

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