Max Verstappen admits that he “paid the price” for a wrong set-up decision heading into qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP that could not be reversed for the race.
The Dutchman was much happier with the car after a floor update was fast tracked for Baku, but an attempt to optimise it for qualifying went the wrong way.
Unable to make any changes for qualifying he complained during the race of having zero bite, brake issues, jumping, and a lack of rear grip.
He eventually finished fifth, gaining two places from the penultimate lap crash that eliminated team mate Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.
“I think we just paid the price with the change that we made into qualifying that made it just really difficult to drive,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about his race.
“The car was jumping around a lot, the wheels were coming off the ground in the low-speed corners. When you don’t have the contact patch with the tarmac it’s very difficult.”
Asked if the setup change was his choice he said: “Yeah, our side. I mean you win and lose as a team. We thought it would be a good direction to go in. At the end, it wasn’t.“
Verstappen downplayed the suggestion that the race represented a wasted opportunity to extend his lead over Norris, who climbed from 15th on the grid to fourth, passing the Red Bull driver in the process.
“Yeah, it is,” he said. “But you can also turn it around. I think they could have done a better job as well, right? So it is what it is.
“I think we learned a lot. The car I think that did feel a bit better than what we had before, because then with the setup, maybe we went the wrong way, and we’ll try to do better.
“I mean, if you look at my race, also probably everything just was the worst-case scenario, my general balance, of course, that I had, then being stuck behind Alex and Lando.”
Regarding his chances of staying ahead of Norris he said: “I think if we do a better job ourselves, they need to have a perfect end to the year.”
Verstappen agreed that his cause might be help by so many drivers being in contention and potentially taking points off the McLaren man.
“In a way, yeah, but I don’t like to of course always be P6 myself!,” he said. “We need to do a bit better. But I think today already showed that for example, with Checo, when he was a bit happier, the car was performing a bit better. We are in that fight.
“Okay, maybe we didn’t win, but we were in that fight with Checo. So I think from now onwards, we can be in that fight constantly if we keep improving the car step-by-step a little bit after our findings in Monza.”
Verstappen was one of four drivers to be called to the FIA stewards for overtaking after the chequered flag, but while the VSC was still active. All escaped with a warning.
“I did everything correct,” he said. “Cross the finish line, all good, chequered flag. I think on the in-lap, end of the race, there are many examples before where it was the same, virtual safety car or safety car, you drive in and on the in-lap, people are passing each other slowly, or waving well done, stuff like that. That’s what I did. So I’m a bit surprised.”
