23 October 2023 , 14:55
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Max Verstappen explained the brakes problem which had the Dutchman flustered behind the wheel during the United States Grand Prix.
Verstappen took victory in Austin, his 15th of the season after 18 races. But it was not as simple as most of his triumphs this season have been, owing in part to a brakes problem he suffered in the latter stages.
It allowed Lewis Hamilton to close in on the champion in the final few laps. The Brit threatened to challenge for the win but finished 2.2 seconds behind his rival, before later being disqualified after post-race checks on his Mercedes.
But his charge certainly had Red Bull star Verstappen worried. "Mate, there brakes are so s*** compared to yesterday. What a piece of s***," he yelled over the radio at one point.
And that was far from the only time he raised the issue with the team. On more than one occasion, when race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase attempted to relay information to his driver, Verstappen snapped back to tell him off for distracting him while he was trying to get a handle on his brakes problems.
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"We had a good start. Then, the first stint, I tried to be patient but at the same time, following for so long did hurt my tyres a little," he said after the race. "I was struggling a lot with the brakes compared to [Saturday], so I couldn't really be that nice on them, and the tyres under braking, and just being very inconsistent.
"That basically carried on for the rest of the race where, compared to yesterday, that was just quite a big factor because I never really had a lot of confidence to be consistent on the braking."
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko explained where the issue had come from. "We had changed the brake pads and somehow they deteriorated rapidly during the race," the Austrian said.
"That didn't give him the right feeling. Sometimes he braked predominantly with the front of the car, sometimes predominantly with the rear. It made it very difficult for him to drive at the limit, but he worked around those problems masterfully."
Verstappen concurred, adding: "That was the only thing that we changed from [Saturday]. That made it very difficult. I couldn't get on top of it and brake. It's very rare that I have it in F1 but today it came up and just made it a bit more difficult.
"I just couldn’t feel the brakes. I very easily locked the fronts and I tried to adjust it and I locked the rears. This is something very weird because, normally, I never really have issues with braking. This is just something that we need to understand why that was today because when you're locking fronts and rears, you're killing also your tyres."