Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing disagreed on the car setup on Saturday. The Dutchman said this after qualifying. He suggested to the team before the session to do it differently, but got a flat refusal. “Sometimes you just have to feel that it doesn’t work that way.”
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Going with his own plan and ignoring the Dutchman’s advice is a striking choice by the team. Especially since the four-time world champion often turns out to be right when the team and he have different opinions about the setup.
Where Red Bull usually bends with Verstappen and successfully relies on his knowledge and skills, the team management decided this time to follow their own course. Given Verstappen’s problems with both the handling and the speed of the RB22, that was clearly the wrong choice. Straightforward as he is, the Dutchman did not mince words about it afterwards. “We went for something different on my car. That’s what the team wanted. But it didn’t work the way it should.”
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He tried to change the team’s mind, but without success. “Sometimes you just have to let the team do its thing and show that it doesn’t work that way,” said Verstappen. “So I said: ‘Go ahead then; if you think it works that way, we’ll do that.” Cheerfully: “I’ve said it so many times, sometimes you just have to feel that something doesn’t work.”
The setup chosen by the team was painfully aimed at more speed. And that was exactly what was lacking in qualifying. For the race, in which a high chance of rain is forecast, it doesn’t really matter according to Verstappen. “If it’s wet, we have completely different problems. We first have to keep the tires up to temperature.”
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