Max Verstappen is not fully appreciated by outsiders and has been unfairly demonised by ‘nationalistic’ Formula 1 television coverage by Sky, reckons design legend Adrian Newey.
In a wide-ranging interview with Jake Humphrey’s popular High Performance podcast reflecting on his time at Red Bull, Newey offered some fascinating insights into Verstappen’s character.
He also opened up on some interesting reflections on the controversial 2021 championship where he suggested that the Dutchman’s antics at that year’s Brazilian Grand Prix were out of order.
In one section of the interview, he made reference to how he feels Verstappen has not been portrayed in the right way by television coverage – an element he also felt was true of the way Sebastian Vettel was treated when winning for Red Bull.
“From the outside, I'm not sure people fully appreciate and understand Max, just like they didn't with Sebastian,” said Newey. “There's this sort of demonisation both of them suffered at times, which is very unfair.
“And maybe that's also a little bit of the British media, if I'm honest. Sky have a huge influence around the world. Although viewing isn't truly international, their coverage is quite nationalistic, dare I say, and that can have an influence.
“It's this thing that now with journalism, typically… there is that trend to sort of either put people on a pedestal or knock them down.”
Newey says Verstappen consistently performs at a level that very few in F1 can match, but he admits that the pressures of that infamous 2021 championship battle with Lewis Hamilton did show signs of him potentially feeling the heat.
Asked if Verstappen had ever cracked under pressure, Newey said: “A little bit perhaps in his championship of ‘21 where the intensity, particularly after Silverstone, on track between Lewis and Max became so intense.
He added: “It's always easier for the hunter than the hunted and Max was starting, I think, to just feel a little bit of pressure from the hunted, hence that he was, in reality, probably lucky not to get a penalty from his driving in Brazil.
"The Saudi [clash], where they had a bit of a ding-dong, that was a little bit more… I think that was not clear. But Max was probably a bit out of order in Brazil in truth, so I think he was feeling it a bit.”
Abu Dhabi fallout
The 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi remains one of F1’s most controversial races, with the FIA’s mishandling of a safety car restart influencing the outcome of the world championship.
But despite the huge fallout of how events helped Verstappen snatch the title from Hamilton’s grasp on the final lap, Newey says that the Dutchman never had much trouble dealing with the post-event drama.
“I think, honestly, Max is so self-assured,” he said. “This is in a positive way. It's not in a negative way.
“There's arrogance and there is self-assured. Max is not arrogant, but he is very self-assured and self-confident, and he's a deep thinker.
“But he doesn't let things like that, I don't think – they don't really get to him. He's able to shut that off and just get on with his job and get on with his task and do what he loves doing, which is driving racing cars.”
Asked if the events had got to him, Newey replied: “No. Actually, I think it got to Mercedes. Instead of saying okay, well, accepting it and moving on, it started to affect their psyche, which is an interesting one. That's from the outside, and I might be completely wrong.
“They just couldn't let it go. Psychologically, they couldn't let it go.”
Verstappen strengths
Talking about what he felt people had wrong about Verstappen, Newey said: “I think that he's very intelligent, and he's got an incredible ability to… it almost feels as if he can drive the car automatically.
“He doesn't, of course, but he can drive the car and has so much processing power left over that he can then think a lot about how he's driving the car, how he's looking after the tyres, what he might need to do on the settings – or if he doesn't, if he's not sure, ask GP [race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase] on the radio what he should be doing, but highlighting the problems.”
