Max Verstappen seeks F1 finishing touch after run of retirements | Sport

Max Verstappen seeks F1 finishing touch after run of retirements | Sport

There is a refreshing lack of artifice when Max Verstappen makes a case. The Red Bull driver is as happy to be honest off-track as he is uncompromising on it. The young Dutchman has never been shy of backing himself and, 10 races into what has been a trying season, his directness suggests he has learned from his travails and moved on. A better, more rounded driver has emerged.

Fourteen months ago Verstappen made a winning debut for Red Bull in Spain aged only 18 and followed it with a season that was daring, gripping and, for good and bad reasons, impossible to ignore. This year has been less edifying for the driver and his team. From the third round in Bahrain to the ninth in Austria he failed to finish in five of seven races. By the time of the third retirement in Canada, when he banged his fists on the wheel in frustration, he admitted he was fed up and not enjoying racing.

Dealing with setbacks, however, is going to be part of what is likely to be a long and successful career and in Hungary â€" where Verstappen will start fifth on the grid â€" he appears to have mentally mastered this season’s disappointments.

“You have to be positive otherwise it doesn’t work,” he says. “You can’t change the situation so you try to make the best of it and try every weekend to get the best result.”

Verstappen has opted to put this run of ill-luck behind him. In Bahrain a brake failure took him out and in Spain he was knocked out after a crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas. Canada opened with an electrifying start that moved him up to second before the battery failed and in Austria he was collected after Daniil Kvyat’s lunge at turn one.

Perhaps the worst of the lot, however, was Baku, a race the Red Bull principal, Christian Horner, believes Verstappen could have won. But as the frontrunners ruled themselves out of contention an engine failure put paid to his run and he had to watch his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo take the flag.

Verstappen, however, has moved on. “With all the things in Baku I might have won,” he says. “But I want to win on merit. I want to win because I am the fastest out there instead not by luck, then it means a lot more to you.”

His relationship with the team has been addressed, too. “I am lucky because it is not really the team, they always try their best,” he says. “You try to stay positive, that is the most important thing.”

Earlier in the week, Horner had noted that this attitude would be beneficial. “I think he has shown tremendous maturity,” he said. “The way he’s driving this season, he’s just getting stronger and stronger. It has been character-building for him. I think he’ll come out the other side a stronger person with this being a difficult part in his very short career so far. He has dealt with it very, very well. He hasn’t been spitting his dummy or throwing his toys out of the pram.”

Verstappen hopes his fourth place at the British Grand Prix reminded everyone of what he can do when the wheels are still turning. It also offered further evidence that he is honing his talent. At Silverstone he defended mightily in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Sebastian Vettel. The crowd loved it but a frustrated Vettel described him as “jumpy” in defence.

“We didn’t have the pace to really be in the fight with them but I am not giving up my position very easily,” Verstappen says. “That’s why I was making a fight of it. I enjoyed it and the crowd enjoyed it.”

Nor was he happy to be taking flak from the four-time world champion, after Vettel had driven into Lewis Hamilton at Baku. “Only one person has criticised me this year and you hear it from a driver who has been hitting another car behind the safety car. I don’t take it seriously,” he says. “He apologised but I think it is better to not say someone else is jumpy when you have completely lost your head behind the safety car.”

This, of course, is that Verstappen directness writ large, he remains entirely unawed by the reputations of those around him. On track it can make him breathtaking as he proved in Brazil last year and now he has been through the mill it is a trait that will combine well with a new-found ability to manage the ups and downs.

“You have to be patient, trust the team, that they can deliver a good job,” he says. “Hopefully they can learn a lot this year. The world championship is what I am here for.”

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