An untelevised team radio message from the Italian GP has shown Max Verstappen telling Laurent Mekies that Red Bull ‘weaknesses’ were evident in Monza.
Max Verstappen joined Antonelli and Russell on the podium in Monza, taking a third podium in the last four races. The Italian GP followed a tough weekend in Zandvoort for Verstappen, with the Dutch driver crashing out of his last home race after one lap.
Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies praised Verstappen’s Monza drive as a “big step forward” on team radio at the end of the race. However, the four-time world champion was less pleased with the performance of his RB22.
The full conversation between Verstappen, Mekies, and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase on the cooldown lap was as follows:
Lambiase: “Well done, Max. That’s a valiant effort, mate, as always. Picked up a podium, so nice work. We’ll have fail 84, charge on and can you push out of Turn 2 for temperatures, please? Thank you.”
Mekies: “Well done, Max. Strong race pace. You stayed with these guys and massive, massive overtakes you have done all race long. But the best news is a strong race pace. We know we have more we can extract, but it was a big step forward today and mega overtaking. Well done.”
Verstappen: “Yeah. It is a very nice podium. Again, you can see clearly our weaknesses here. Just sitting back on the straights and the ride, as we know.”
Mekies: “Yep. All clear, Max. Well done.”
Ongoing rear axle issue for Verstappen
A source of Verstappen’s Monza struggle was an issue with the rear axle of his Red Bull that plagued him throughout the race after first being noted in qualifying.
“Yeah, it’s still there. Nothing changed. It’s just not good,” he said in the post-race press conference.
“You struggle on the bumps, the kerbs, in the low-speed especially. It’s still like the rear axle is just not very compliant.
“So, for sure, it was not ideal again today and costing performance, but it’s what it is.”
He added: “I had my issues yesterday that, of course, were still there today.
“But also, I think it was quite clear during the race that we just can’t keep up with the deployment of the Mercedes-powered cars and that is, of course, very tough on a track like Monza.
“Of course, with the overtake mode it looked quite promising, but as soon as I got in the lead, it was very hard to defend.
“And that has been a bit my problem throughout the whole race.
“Even when we had the VSC, we boxed, had better tyres, I’m overtaking cars, but as soon as they can hang in that overtake mode, it’s just too powerful for us to actually really defend that, even on better tyres. So it took me a while even to clear the McLarens.
“But for us to be on the podium, I think after a very difficult weekend in Zandvoort where the car was not really to my liking, we managed to have a strong turnaround from Friday to Saturday and the car was definitely in a better window.
“But we still have a few bits and areas that we know need to be better, plus the obvious deployment on the straights.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris issues ‘league of their own’ admission of F1 rivals
Discussion about this post