Max Verstappen ‘paid the price’ for Azerbaijan F1 set-up changes

Max Verstappen has admitted that he “paid the price” in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for set-up modifications to his Red Bull Formula 1 car that made it “difficult to drive”.

Verstappen sustained a rare subdued outing in Baku as he was unable to provide a match to the pace that Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez could extract in the RB20.

As Perez was situated at the sharp end with the leading Ferrari and McLaren cars throughout the race, Verstappen struggled and was never within podium contention.

The Dutchman even lost out to title rival Lando Norris, who started 11 places behind him, and was on track to end up seventh until Perez and Carlos Sainz’s late clash.

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Verstappen attributed his recurring trouble with his Red Bull car’s balance to a late set-up alteration that ended up triggering accentuated bouncing around the streets.

“I think we just paid the price with the change that we made into qualifying that made it just really difficult to drive,” Verstappen, who took fifth place, explained.

“The car was jumping around a lot. The wheels were coming off the ground in the low-speed corners, so you don’t have a contact patch with the tarmac and it’s very difficult.

“We tried to make it better, but we made it worse.”

However, Verstappen adopted a calm demeanour as he declined that the team was to blame, citing that he had authorised the last-minute tweaks to be implemented.

Asked how much input he had in the changes that proved to unravel his weekend, Verstappen replied: “Yeah, our side. I mean, you know, you win and lose as a team.

“We thought it would be a good direction to go into and, in the end, it wasn’t.”

Verstappen admits points loss could have been worse

Verstappen surrendering to a late-charging Norris in the closing exchanges saw him spurn another three points to his championship lead, with the gap now 59 points.

However, the reigning F1 champion has accepted that it could have been worse had Norris started in a representative place as McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri won.

“It is [a wasted opportunity], but you can also turn it around and say they could have done a better job as well, right?” he highlighted.

“So it is what it is. I think we learned a lot – the car did feel a bit better than what we had before, but, with the set-up, we maybe went the wrong way and we’ll try to do better.

“If you look at my race, probably everything just was the worst-case scenario, my general balance that I had and then being stuck behind Alex [Albon] and Lando.

“So yeah, then, of course, it’s not a surprise at all.”