Despite taking the lead for several laps at the 2022 F1 British Grand Prix, Max Verstappen had a disappointing Sunday at Silverstone. His Red Bull RB18 suffered floor damage early in the race after picking up a piece of carbon fiber debris from the track.
Team boss Christian Horner claimed that it had not been for the debris, the reigning world champion would have certainly secured a win this weekend.
As reported by PlanetF1, Horner said:
“I haven’t seen the debris yet, there was so much going on, a bit of debris out there and unfortunately really unlucky for Max [Verstappen], because I think he would have been a slam dunk today. But it was a great race. It was an exciting race.”
Speaking about the team’s decision to put Max Verstappen on hard tires before moving on to softs after a safety car later on in the race, Horner added, saying:
“The race suddenly changed, we’re suddenly racing [Sebastian] Vettel and [Mick] Schumacher and guys that we’re not usually around, so it was a matter of then adapting to ‘right, okay, what’s our fastest route to the end of the race? We’ve got to cover those guys’. So we went onto the hard [tyre] and the plan was to go to the end of the race, and then the Safety Car came out and it was like ‘well Max is really struggling out there, chuck a set of softs on and let’s see what we can do’. And he made a couple of passes and a great restart and P7 was probably the hardest P7 he’s ever fought for today.”
Despite finishing seventh, the Dutchman secured significant championship points at Silverstone and remains in the lead in the drivers’ standings with 181 points to his name.
The car was “undrivable”, says Max Verstappen after the 2022 F1 British GP
Max Verstappen put in some strong laps and showed incredible pace at the 2022 F1 British GP before everything went south when a piece of carbon fiber ruined his race.
In a post-race media interaction, he described the damage suffered by the car and the impact it had on the rest of the race, saying:
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“The car was really undrivable, so I tried to the best I could. And I actually think because of the Safety Car, we gained a few spots, so yes, quite a lot of damage limitation. I tried everything I could with the car I had. It’s of course not what I want but sometimes you have those races which just become a bit unlucky.”
The race was eventually won by Carlos Sainz, which incidentally was the Spaniard’s maiden F1 victory for Ferrari.
Edited by Aranya Chaudhury
