Max Verstappen believes his prospects of mounting a challenge for the podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix were thwarted by the driveshaft failure that halted Pierre Gasly’s race.
Verstappen had been gradually reeling in Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel until a Virtual Safety Car period was implemented when team-mate Gasly stopped due to a driveshaft failure.
Fearful of a potential issue arising on Verstappen’s car, Red Bull cautioned Verstappen over heavy use of the kerbs, while the VSC phase also had a negative impact on the RB15’s tyre usage.
“I think Pierre had a driveshaft failure, that's why they told me to stay off the kerbs, just to minimise the angle on it,” he said.
“And then also the last few laps I just stayed off all kerbs, but of course in the infield it's a lot of lap time – but anyway I didn't have the grip anymore. I knew I was going to be fourth anyway.
“I was catching up seven or eight seconds over that stint, so that was all good, but as soon as we got to the VSC, I lost a lot of temperature, seems like our car is a maybe a bit more sensitive to that, or we're just not on top of the tyres, I don't know – otherwise we would've of course fixed that.
“It was a lot more difficult after that, was just sliding a lot, and around here if you don't have the grip, you can't take the risk into the corner and you lose a lot of lap time.”
It marked the third successive race at which Verstappen classified fourth.
“Well, we know that we lose time on the straights, I think it's not a secret,” he said.
“But I think car-wise to really make a difference we also need to step it up a bit more, but in the race, there was not much I was complaining about.
“I mean, it shows that if you're closing a gap by seven-eight seconds over that stint, the car is working.
“But of course, as the driver, you always want it to be better, and I hope as the engineer you always want it to be better.”
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