Max verstappen gearbox1/10/2024 ![]() ![]() Then the hot Neapolitan sun had caused his rear tyres to overheat and blister as he made up those ten places to take pole position for the final. For starters, a burnt-out clutch in one of the early heats had left him tenth in the pre-final. But then there was the mistake.īut, you see, it wasn't all Max's fault. His father, Jos, a former F1 driver and now Max's full-time kart mechanic, always made sure his son had the best equipment when he moved up a class, and once again Max immediately looked very competitive against older, more experienced competition. The event was the KZ2 World Championship final at Sarno - a track near Naples, under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius - and Max was making the step up to shifter karts (go-karts with a gearbox) for the first time. ![]() The weekend had looked so promising, too. One of those weird moments in motorsport where a number of seemingly unrelated factors lead to a split-second decision that ultimately ruins a whole weekend's work. There was only one option left: call Mum.Īs he sat waiting for his mum, who was in a separate car a little further back on the same road, Max was still working the mistake over in his head. And he'd certainly never been left alone at a gas station in the south of Italy. In all of his 14 years and 11 months on this earth, he'd never seen his dad as angry as he was at the go-kart track a couple of hours earlier. The making of F1 world champion Max VerstappenĪs he watched his dad's van pull back on to the Autostrada without him, Max Verstappen was struggling to digest what had happened. “Then better back five places, in the hope of working your way up to second place in the race, but then having a fresher engine at the World Championship final in Abu Dhabi.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser “Red Bull could say Jeddah is a Mercedes track anyway, so in the best case scenario we will finish second. He told : “There are currently rumours that Honda might install a new internal combustion engine after all and accept a penalty of five places, in order to have a fresh engine against Mercedes. “I know what I have in terms of engines and normally we should be able to do it with that.”īut while Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has said they may yet fit Verstappen’s RB16B with a fresh ICE in Abu Dhabi, former F1 driver turned pundit Ralf Schumacher feels this weekend would be the better option. “At least there are no question marks from my side,” he said. The 24-year-old isn’t worried that reliability could hurt him. “Our engine is fairly consistent throughout its life, so that wouldn’t help us very much.” “We don’t have a peak like Mercedes,” he said. Verstappen explained that’s because unlike Mercedes’ ICE, the Honda one doesn’t offer the same performance gains out the box. While it was speculated by some pundits that this weekend’s grand prix would be the perfect time to hand Verstappen a new Internal Combustion Engine, Hamilton having taken a new one in Brazil, Red Bull have decided against it. However, if the points gap is fewer than 18, the title race will go down to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.īoth Red Bull and Mercedes have opted to avoid any chance of a gearbox issue ruining their driver’s chance of winning, replacing the part for the Saudi Arabian GP. ![]() That means if Verstappen out-scores Hamilton by 18 or more points on Sunday, he will be crowned F1’s newest World Champion. Verstappen and Hamilton arrived at the Jeddah Corniche circuit for the penultimate race in the championship separated by eight points in the Red Bull driver’s favour. Neither driver will be penalised as they used their previous gearbox for the mandatory six successive grands prix. Both title rivals, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, will run new gearboxes in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. ![]()
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