Max Overtaken - Norris Shines: Verstappen Blames Setup

Max Verstappen faced a challenging Grand Prix in Baku, hampered by car issues that left him off the pace and overtaken by rivals.

In a rare turn of events, the quickest Red Bull on the track was not driven by Max Verstappen. At the Baku Grand Prix, the Dutch driver was notably off-pace—he even found himself overtaken by George Russell. The situation was particularly stark as Lando Norris, starting from 15th, finished ahead of him.

Verstappen’s fifth place, aided by a collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez, offered little solace to the Red Bull pilot.

“My car was bouncing a lot in the low-speed corners,” he explained post-race.

“My wheels were literally lifting off the ground. Naturally, you then lose contact with the tarmac, which is the last thing you want. It caused me to slide more, overheat the tyres, and there was no way around the problem, so the pace was somewhat erratic.”

“I had to pit and unfortunately ended up stuck behind Alex and Lando. I was in the thick of it, George overtook me, and we both had a good pace, catching up to the leaders. But as soon as I got close to George, in that window where the air is dirty because of the car’s bouncing… I slid even more.”

“So, it tipped me into an uncontrollable situation towards the end of the race, which was again very challenging.”

Apparently, a poor adjustment made just before qualifying is largely to blame for the Red Bull driver’s troubles.

“I think we paid the price with the change we made in qualifying, which made the car very difficult to drive… We tried to improve it, but it made things worse. You win and lose as a team. We thought it would be a good direction to take and, in the end, it wasn’t.”

Sergio Pérez appeared most comfortable in Baku: could the recent adjustments, including a new floor, have suited the Mexican driver’s style?

Max Verstappen does not share this view…

“The driver doesn’t need to be an expert in the matter. I believe the changes we made to the car were positive, but of course, you always need to make the right setups on the car.”

“We are moving in the right direction, but the changes we made before qualifying shifted things, and unfortunately, we paid the price during the race.”

“The development in terms of the floor is a positive step, yes, the overall handling is better.”

The gap remains significant in the drivers’ championship

In the championship, Max Verstappen still holds a solid lead over Lando Norris, with 7 races to go (59 points difference).

But with Lando Norris starting 15th, did the Red Bull driver miss an opportunity to clinch the match?

“It’s a missed opportunity, but you can also see it differently and say that they could have done a better job as well, right?”

“We have learned a lot – the car was a bit better than what we had before, but with the setups, we might have taken the wrong direction – and we will try to do better.”

“If you look at my race, everything was probably the worst-case scenario—the overall balance I had and being stuck behind Alex and Lando… So yes, of course, it’s not surprising at all.”

What works in Max Verstappen’s favor in the championship is that the winners change from race to race… one time Lewis Hamilton, another Charles Leclerc, a third Oscar Piastri…

“Yes, in a way, it’s an advantage. But I don’t like, of course, being consistently in sixth place. So we need to do a bit better. This race already showed that Checo was a bit happier with the car, that our F1 could be a bit more competitive, so we are in this fight…”

“Okay, we may not have won, but we were in the contest with Checo. So, from now on, we can consistently be in this fight if we continue to improve the car step by step, drawing lessons from our findings in Monza.”