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Home Single Seater Formula 1

Ex-Red Bull head of engineering: Verstappen is ‘weak technically’

by Fergal Walsh
3 months ago
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Ex-Red Bull head of engineering: Verstappen is ‘weak technically’
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Max Verstappen still has much more progress to make when it comes to developing a Formula 1 car, believes the former Red Bull Racing Head of Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin.

Rocquelin, who currently works with the Red Bull Junior Team, oversaw the Milton Keynes-based squad’s engineering division from 2015 to 2022 and worked closely with Verstappen.

Prior to taking on the role, he was Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer at the team before Vettel opted to leave for Ferrari in 2015.

Vettel is widely known for his commitment to working with the engineering department, and enjoyed a dominant period with Red Bull in the early 2010s.

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Verstappen now appears to be going through a similar stretch, having won back-to-back F1 titles in 2021 and 2022.

But speaking on Eurosport France’s ‘Les Fous du Volant’ podcast, Rocquelin believes that Verstappen still has room to improve when it comes to the technical side of his arsenal.

“I think Sebastian was a more complete driver than Max when he arrived with us,” said Rocquelin.

“At the professional level, technique, mediation…he was trained at the [Michael] Schumacher ‘school’, who was his idol.

“He asked a lot of questions, took a lot of notes and when he arrived with us he was very thorough. It’s no coincidence he won several titles. He was more prepared technically, mentally.

“I think Max maybe had more natural talent, that’s what he relied on the most. But Sebastian was the most complete.

“Max has always been a boss. He has enormous self-confidence, he knows what he wants and he is very direct.

“But I’ll be honest, Max is weak technically compared to other drivers we’ve worked with. I think he still has a lot of progress to make.

“He is a leader by his attitude, his results. But I think he can improve from a technical point of view and in the way of developing the car.”

Verstappen recently broke Vettel’s record (which was shared with Schumacher) of most wins in a season, taking his 14th of 2022 last time out in Mexico.

Rocquelin with Verstappen after his race victory at the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix
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Comments 3

  1. Ray says:
    3 months ago

    Strange comment.

    I remember Ricciardo saying Max was a racing nerd due to his technical knowledge.

    So either Ricciado was even weaker or Seb was a maniac like Schumi leaving Max in the middle.

    Reply
  2. Josh says:
    3 months ago

    “I think Sebastian was a more complete driver than Max when he arrived with us,”

    Bahahaha, BS. Vettel hasn’t done jack sh*t in F1 without a massively dominant car, which was handed to him. He couldn’t even beat Ricciardo in the same equipment, and never managed to help either Ferrari or Aston Martin improve so he must not be too great on the technical side. Verstappen on the other hand helped develop the current massively dominant Red Bull so he can’t be too bad on the technical side.

    Reply
    • Dami says:
      3 months ago

      Vettel didn’t have a massively dominant car. To assess car dominance, you have to look at the second car. During those four years Red Bull achieved a total of twelve one-two race finishes, and Webber never ended the season as runner-up in the title standings. By contrast, Mercedes achieved twelve one-two finishes in 2015 alone, and had the runner-up in the drivers’ title table in five of the seven years that a Mercedes driver won the title. The car was so much better than the competition even the hopeless Bottas managed it twice. As to the Mercedes front row lockouts in qualifying, it was almost a given unless one or other had a penalty of some sort. Neither of Hamilton’s teammates at Mercedes had any great distinction to their records prior to driving that car, yet Rosberg won twenty-one races in three seasons, while even the totally inadequate Bottas won ten races in five seasons. Likewise the Red Bull is not massively dominant now. The Mercedes cars used to both disappear into the distance and finish dozens of seconds clear of the rest, in most races. That isn’t happening now, with Red Bull, they aren’t even on pole for most events.

      Also, regarding your comments on Vettel’s post Red Bull performances, he is the only driver who was good enough to finish runner-up to a Mercedes-driving champion without having a Mercedes himself.

      Reply

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