Verstappen: Managing tyres made Belgian GP "boring"
Max Verstappen found Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix "pretty boring", believing he spent 38 of the 44 laps at Spa managing his tyres en route to third place.
Verstappen spent every single lap of the race running third as he struggled to take the fight to the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas ahead.
Verstappen made an earlier than planned switch to the hard compound tyre following an early safety car, forcing him to then manage his pace for the remainder of the race to pull off a one-stop strategy.
The option Red Bull had to switch to a two-stop strategy was compromised by Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, who sat within Verstappen's pit stop window in fourth place.
Verstappen explained after the race that he was forced to manage his tyres for the majority of the race, something he found disappointing at a track as exciting as Spa.
"On the hard tyre I was trying to follow Valtteri a bit, and then they told him to speed up, so I lost of a bit of ground," Verstappen said.
"From then on, at one point with 10 laps to go, I started to have really bad vibrations on the tyres, and then I started to have a lot of understeer.
"Then we discussed if we should do a pitstop, and I had Daniel in my pitstop window, so I said let's go to the end then, and manage it.
"It's a shame, it's such an amazing track, and then we can't really push. It was pretty boring, to be honest. It's a shame. I really enjoy driving here.
"We did 44 laps, right? I probably spent 38 of them managing a lot. It's not been the most exciting [race] today."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that one-stop races such as the Belgian Grand Prix were "always boring", and that a variety of strategy options would help spice up proceedings.
"You need to have two to three stop races," Horner said. "I think that mixes the order up, it mixes the strategy up. We've always seen that one-stop races where drivers are driving under the tyre trying to conserve the tyre, is very tough.
"You need some more variety of strategy in order to create offsets between the cars.
"The most fundamental thing that we need to do is to increase the amount of strategies that you can go into a race with.
"Pretty much every one elected to take a one stop strategy there. And that's never going to produce an exciting grand prix."
Share Or Save This Story
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Can Red Bull now fight for wins everywhere? "It's difficult to be on par with Mercedes consistently"
Why the Sepang win has a deeper meaning for Max Verstappen and Red Bull
How the Bahrain GP in Malaysia exposed Red Bull’s hidden resurgence
Charles Leclerc explains why Bahrain GP chaos has reinforced F1 driver fears
Redemption at Road Atlanta: Kevin Estre breaks IMSA victory curse in thrilling Petit Le Mans finish
Winners and losers from an intriguing NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas
Toyota explains how a photographer helped secure dramatic Fuji WEC win
How F1 let a golden opportunity slip at Sepang
How the Bahrain GP in Malaysia exposed Red Bull’s hidden resurgence
You Ask The Questions: Emerson Fittipaldi
The wide world of strategy options expected in F1's Bahrain GP in Malaysia
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments