SILVERSTONE, England -- Max Verstappen has joked that “life” and “breathing” are the two things keeping him motivated to keep racing at the British Grand Prix this weekend.
Verstappen had said coming into the weekend that his experience of racing Silverstone in Red Bull’s simulator had made him laugh due to the high energy management needed.
The UK circuit has brutally exposed the worst elements of Formula 1’s new cars, which feature an unprecedented focus on electric battery harvesting and power deployment.
That has meant drivers need to slow through the legendary and fearsome Maggotts and Becketts complex of corners to harvest energy to use later in the lap.
“I guess the faster you are, the better it is, right?” said Verstappen, who qualified for Sunday’s race in seventh. “But for me, no enjoyment, unfortunately. I mean, it’s still a great track. I know how it felt like before.
“It’s a little bit different, let’s say like that.
“The problem is that you slow down so much before the corners. It makes it a lot less interesting.”
It was a poor qualifying session for the Dutchman, who was out-qualified by Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar in fifth.
When asked what keeps him motivated to keep going through weekends when the car is not competitive and the feel of the F1 car is bringing him no joy, he laughed.
“Life,” he said. “Yeah, it’s actually that. Life. Breathing!”
Silverstone’s circuit layout makes it one of the worst on the F1 calendar for energy management.
Saturday’s sprint race saw one byproduct of that, with plenty of back-and-forth overtakes which have been labelled “yo-yo racing.”
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Verstappen had found himself in the middle of it during the sprint race, with George Russell and then Charles Leclerc breezing past him down the straight.
Asked how it felt to be in the middle of it all, Verstappen said: “It just depends how much you understand pure racing. It’s how you define it, I guess.
“I mean, in the sprint race we were getting destroyed in the very high speed.
“I had George behind me who was catching me in dirty air in the high speed, so that says quite a lot. But even in the low speed, I’m just not happy with how the car has been handling the whole weekend. So it’s a clear disconnect.”
