Max Verstappen already said recently in Bahrain during the testing days that he is not particularly fond of the way of racing with these new regulations. But after qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, he repeated that on Saturday in firm terms. “For me, this doesn’t have much to do with racing.”
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First of all: his feeling has nothing to do with his crash and subsequent early exit in Q1. Sincerely: “I’m just not enjoying myself this way and for that, it doesn’t matter where I qualify, for example. Whether that’s at the front or where I am now. In terms of emotion and feeling, I’m completely empty right now.”
Verstappen continues: “You just can’t drive naturally on this circuit. You basically have to be on the throttle as little as possible everywhere to save the battery. You also have to take certain corners differently to save battery again when exiting the corner. For me, it all has very little to do with racing. You have to do it with what you have. And what you have is not very much.”
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The feeling – or lack thereof with these cars – is not a surprise, according to him. “No, because it always felt bad. Even to a point where you’d just rather not drive at all. I’ve already explained that,” he says, referring to the criticism he expressed earlier.
So it might be a long year, he suspects. “In any case, I’ve already mentally prepared myself for that.”
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