20 April 2023 , 09:39
1261
0
Max Verstappen has been so dominant in Formula 1 over the last year that it's easy to forget that he too is capable of making mistakes.
The ultra-consistent Red Bull racer has reached this level after several years of honing his craft in the top single-seater category. In his teenage years especially, Verstappen's talent was undeniable but he did have a penchant for a howler every now and then.
One such blunder came at the United States Grand Prix in 2016 – his first season with the top Red Bull team. "I was in fifth place or something," he told Motorsport.com when recalling his mistake.
"And my engineer said 'push, push', then you assume that you will pit on this lap and so I accelerated. And then I drove into the pit lane, I got to the entrance and suddenly realised that I wasn't called to the pits at all! They never told me to stop.
"At that moment I thought: 'Oh God, what am I doing here?!' I said on the radio: 'Guys, I'm in the pit lane, I'm coming in, I'm coming in'. And at that moment I saw the mechanics running out with the tyres. Of course, the stop then took eight or ten seconds, which was still very fast for that."
Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"
Red Bull have one of the fastest pit crews in F1 and the mechanics were able to mitigate the damage done by Verstappen's blunder. It the end it didn't matter anyway, as a gearbox problem later in the race meant he would not finish.
Daniel Ricciardo made Red Bull feel better about their day with a podium finish (Getty Images)And his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo managed to finish in third place behind the two Mercedes cars, giving the team something to show for their efforts that weekend. Perhaps that is why the infamously unforgiving head of Red Bull's development drivers Helmut Marko reacted in the way he did.
As a fresh-faced 19-year-old, Verstappen might have expected a dressing down when he faced the Austrian after the race. But that was not the case as Marko showed his forgiving side to the teenager.
He said: "I told him that I messed up, quite simply. And he appreciates it when you honestly admit a mistake. He hates it when people start looking for excuses."