Verstappen receives praise for extraordinary statement: 'He saw that'

Red Bull Racing are having a difficult phase. While the competition has become stronger, the team is experiencing balance problems. Max Verstappen warned earlier in the season that things were going in the wrong direction at the team, even though he just finished first at the time. Robert Doornbos told Ziggo Sport Race Café that he thought that was a real statement.

Martin Brundle suggested after the Dutch Grand Prix that Verstappen might have driven slower to make a statement towards his team. Helmut Marko already debunked this rumour, although the Red Bull top advisor did state that Verstappen took fewer risks when he saw he could not win the race.

They also do not believe at Race Café that Verstappen would have started driving slowly on purpose to make a statement towards his team. However, Robert Doornbos did notice something else recently: "Well, what I think is a statement is when in qualifying Barcelona this year you say 'It's not going in the right direction'. You then win that Grand Prix on Sunday, the day after. And everyone thinks, what are you talking about? It's all going well, isn't it?"

Doornbos continued, "And now he says, I said it anyway, Barcelona, I said it already, it's not going in the right direction. Look, if you're going to say that now, we all see that, that does make sense. I find that completely extraordinary, that he saw that back then. And then everyone said 'No, Max, it's going well anyway'."

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