Fred Vasseur has dismissed the notion that Max Verstappen’s current dominance is damaging to Formula 1.
Asked whether it’s Verstappen’s performance that’s making the RB19 look like an outstanding car, Vasseur pointed out that it’s impossible to separate the two, as dominance stems from the driver and the car working in tandem.
“It’s quite impossible to split between driver and team, or car. The driver is also developing the car, is also setting up the car—that is part of the performance of the car.
“For sure, when you see the result, race after race there is a big difference between teammates… But this is not my issue, it’s the issue of Red Bull.”
Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
Indeed, Verstappen seems to be well on the way to a third championship, having already scored an impressive 314 points (which translates to around 62% of Red Bull’s total tally). He’s comfortably breaking records every race weekend, and no penalty or mechanical issue seems to be able to keep him off the top step of the podium.
His teammate, Sergio Perez, is sitting a distant 125 points behind in second. This has raised some concerns that Verstappen’s dominance—more specifically, the fact that he remains, for the most part, unchallenged—is damaging the sport by making the races too predictable.
When the question was put to Vasseur, he simply responded by saying that it’s up to everyone else, including his own team, to close the gap to Verstappen.
“It’s just that we have to collectively do a better job,”
“It’s not that Max is damaging something. Max is doing a fantastic job, Red Bull is doing a fantastic job and it’s just that we have to do better. We can’t complain about Max or Red Bull.”
