Max Verstappen had an eventful qualifying day at Silverstone as he ended up P4 on the grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
It was almost game over for the 3-time defending World Champion in Q1 as he pushed a bit too hard into Copse as it started to rain, losing the car and taking a trip through the gravel.
He explained the damage that it caused and the amount of downforce lost underneath the car as his floor was damaged. Every 10 points lost equates to a tenth a lap.
“Well, initially it was 100 [points of downforce], which is a lot. A lot.
“We got it down a little bit. Yeah, it was still a lot.”
He confirmed that there is another new spec floor, meaning he will not need to start from pit lane.
“Luckily I have [a new floor].”
The 61-time Grand Prix winner expanded on the damage and the efforts by his mechanics to try and improve it somewhat for Q2 (P6) and Q3 (P4).
“Yeah, well, the floor had a lot of holes in it. So you, of course, try to patch that up.
“A few bits were missing or hanging, like flapping. So you want to get rid of that, or at least try to put a few pieces together and try and make it work. That’s basically what they did.
“I mean, they cut a few bits off that were hanging loose. So you try to just optimize the losses, let’s say, like that.”
On the moment itself, Verstappen went into detail on what happened. The Dutchman was one of the last out following the switch to dries from inters earlier in the session, and it started to rain at Copse.
Fortunately for him, he would have been P15 if the track had stayed damp. However, the rain quickly cleared and he could get more laps in, eventually placing P11.
At the end of Q3, he managed to salvage a strong P4 for the Grand Prix. He was less than 0.384s off pole.
“From Q1, that off, it was just super unlucky.
“I came out of [turn] 7, heading towards Copse and started to rain. I knew that the people in front of me didn’t have that rain patch and of course they were on slicks.
“I knew Q1 we needed that slick lap in because you never know if it’s going to rain more, and then the session is over.
“Naturally, of course, I tried to keep the speed up. I did slow down knowing it was raining on my visor, but it still snapped on me and then I had to try and keep it out of the wall, going offline.
“But then I had to take to the gravel, which ripped the floor apart. [I] missed quite a few bits on the car, even though I do think the team did a great job of trying to recover some of the bit, and tried to optimise the balance front to rear.
“But yeah, that basically ruined our qualifying. I was happy to be in Q3 already with the damage that we had. And yeah, the end to be P4 is probably a bit of a positive surprise.”
On his final run in Q3 that saw him narrowly outpace Oscar Piastri to get on the second row, Verstappen discussed how on the limit he was, losing speed in some corners compared to practice due to the damage.
In the slow speed turn 4, he had a small snap, missing the apex by quite a margin.
“It was still not bad. I had a little moment at 4, but honestly they kept on repairing the floor, so my balance was shifting every lap.
“And then I was changing things on my wheel every lap to try and find a better compromise. So probably in some bits we tipped it over the edge to try and compensate.
“But it was still a good lap. I tried to really push it to the limit, tried to really use the track wherever I could because naturally in the very high speed the load wasn’t there. I was going slower in some corners compared to practice.
“But yeah, it was the best we could do with that damage, I think.”
With the two Mercedes cars and Norris ahead of him on the grid, it’s going to be difficult for the Dutch driver to take the victory. McLaren has had the fastest car for the vast majority of the last few events in race trim.
But starting P4, it gives Verstappen a shot at going on the offensive instead of having to constantly cover and defend.
He is wary of McLaren’s excellent tyre life over a long distance, nonetheless.
“I would like to be in the mix. Actually, first of all, I need a new floor. That would help.
“I hope that it can be an exciting race, where now we are probably a bit more on the attack, instead of starting first or second. But that’s fine.
“Even the people around me, we’re all very close in pace, I guess. Naturally, I do think that McLaren is always very quick in the race, looking after their tyres. But I hope that we can be in that mix and make it difficult.
“We know that McLaren is being quick everywhere, in all temperatures and all circuits.”
Talking to Dutch media in the written media zone after his English committments, the drivers briefing and Zak Brown’s comments came up. Verstappen got straight to the point, with some humour thrown in.
Q: Yesterday was the drivers meeting. Did you get any backlash regarding Austria?
Verstappen: “No, actually, we just discussed recent things, things we could improve on in the future with the tracks, track limits, stuff like that.”
Q: Some drivers mentioned on camera that they thought the commotion was a bit over top, did thay say something?
Verstappen: “No, we didn’t discuss it at all.”
Q: Zak Brown said that one thing that needs to change is to have permanent stewards, will that help in your opinion?
Verstappen: “Who is Zak Brown?”
