Max Verstappen says a change in weather forecast overnight hurt his chances of a better result in the British Grand Prix as rain didn’t suit his lower-downforce approach.
Red Bull opted to go for a low-drag setting in qualifying that gave it good top speed on the straights, and Verstappen duly took pole position on Saturday. However, in wet conditions more downforce is needed and heavy rain both before and during the race ensured only the closing stages took place on slicks, as Verstappen finished fifth and suffered a spin mid-race.
“It was all setup, I guess,” Verstappen said. “It was just difficult to drive today. The rear wing for sure made everything more complicated, but overall, I think even if we had a little bit more downforce on the car, we would not be fighting with McLaren, that’s for sure.
“The weather forecast overnight just changed a lot, because up until yesterday, the weather was getting better. It was actually just raining a bit in the morning, and then it would be fine. And last night, suddenly, it just shifted into more severe rain. That can happen.”
Verstappen was still concerned by both the pace McLaren showed but also his own struggles in traffic, having dropped to the edge of the points due to his spin during a race restart.
“To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. It was very difficult from lap 1 onwards.” he said. “It was a very difficult balance in the car between high speed and low speed. I couldn’t really find a good balance. Also on the inters, I think we were degrading the tires too much, especially compared to McLaren – they were again on a different level.
“And then I had my moment, which made everything a bit more difficult. But even when I was behind – P10, whatever I was in – I also didn’t really have the pace to move forward, which was a bit concerning.
“But then again, we made the right calls. Stayed calm, stayed out as long as we could with the inters. That was again the right call, so we ended up fifth – which I think in hindsight, looking at it, is probably the best we could have done after all the things that happened during the race.”
Despite the spin occurring just after an incident Oscar Piastri was penalized for behind the safety car, Verstappen didn’t see correlation between the two.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean, I just tried to go on throttle, but the car has been really difficult already, up until that point, with just trying to find a nice rhythm and it just caught me out on cold tires.”
