As Max Verstappen withstood a 10-minute grilling about Red Bull’s ongoing saga and his place within the team, the Dutchman offered two fanciful sentiments.
One was that he wished reporters were talking more about his latest F1-dominating car.
The other was that he wants to bury his head in the sand about how Red Bull is handling the Christian Horner saga, and its many knock-on effects.
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This is the sort of blissful bubble that any global megastar wishes to operate in, free to master their god-given talents without the burden of real life inconveniences.
On Thursday, Verstappen would’ve felt himself being pulled outside of that bubble one question at a time.
Verstappen faced 10 minutes of questions outside the Red Bull hospitality suite, and all but a few centred on off-track matters engulfing the team, and himself.
Many were answered in good nature – it’s easy to answer with a smile on your face on a Thursday, especially after two wins.
But Verstappen might’ve given his irritation away when twice he hinted for reporters to speak more about on-track matters.
“Would we have liked to have more talk about our car? Probably, yes,” Verstappen said about the negative attention on Red Bull.
“But we just try to keep on working on the performance and to keep winning.”
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Melbourne might be far away from the rest of the F1 calendar, but this corner of the world on Thursday offered no refuge to Verstappen, or the Red Bull crisis in general.
It was harder for Verstappen to sidestep the matter completely when he was asked if he’s been satisfied with how Red Bull has handled allegations team principal, Christian Horner, behaved inappropriately towards a female colleague.
But that said, he gave it a red-hot go when he tried to wash his hands of the situation.
“From what I know, everything is handled in the right way,” he began.
“I’m not going into any further details from that side because I don’t know more than that.
“And I also don’t want to know because that’s not my job or my task within the team.”
You compare that to comments from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who on Thursday didn’t hesitate to put the entire industry on blast in response to news that Susie Wolff had launched criminal proceedings against the FIA.
“I love that she’s taken it out of this world, because there is a real lack of accountability here, within this sport, within the FIA, there are things that are happening behind closed doors, there is no transparency,” Hamilton said.
“There is clearly no accountability. And we need that. I think the fans need that; how can you trust the sport and what is happening here every day if you don’t have that?”
He added: “And especially for women, you know, it is still a male-dominated sport.
“And we’re living in a time where the message is, if you file a complaint, you’ll be fired, and that is a terrible narrative to be projecting to the world.”
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Meanwhile, in terms of his own future, there was a slight change in tone from Verstappen on Thursday.
He once again refused to rule out a move to Mercedes, but this time appeared more adamant about his intention to see out his contract, which expires in 2028.
There was, however, one more not-so-subtle hint about the need for Red Bull to retain motorsport supremo Helmut Marko.
“It’s very important that we try to keep the key players in the team for a longer period of time,” Verstappen said. “Because that’s, of course, where the performance is as well. And at the end of the day it’s a performance business.“
Asked exactly who the “key players” were, Verstappen refused to name names – but there was no confusion around the table about who he was referring to.
If there was any doubt about that, his slight smirk while answering said everything you needed to know.
BONKERS RICCIARDO SCENE ‘GETS CRAZIER’
“Every year it gets crazier.”
He’s not wrong.
The scene greeting Daniel Ricciardo in front of Albert Park’s paddock gates gets more bonkers, regardless of what results he’s achieving on the track.
Ricciardo arrived on Friday – in a white Honda Civic Type R for anyone wondering – to music pumping and fans losing their mind in scenes of Beatles-like delirium.
One fan even had a poster with Ricciardo’s face superimposed on the body of Jesus Christ.
Ricciardo barely batted an eye-lid, as this has become par for the course for the Australian at his home Grand Prix.
10 years ago he raced here for Red Bull and stood on the second-step of the podium – but the excitement that generated couldn’t touch today’s scenes.
The fact he’s now racing near the back of the grid doesn’t seem to matter.
Ricciardo happily played along for fans, taking selfies and signing items – even a McLaren hat and a jar of Vegemite – before making a break for the paddock.
It’s sometimes hard to differentiate between Ricciardo’s moods given he’s seemingly always smiling, but there has been an underlying aura of determination following him thus far in Melbourne.
On Thursday, he fronted the drivers’ press conference and was immediately hit with questions about the rapidly-building pressure on him after a slow start to the season.
Ricciardo handled all questions with the experience and poise you might expect of a 34-year-old veteran, and displayed the attitude of a driver in the mindset to have the last laugh.
Asked about Marko’s pointed comments about him needing to “come up with something soon”, Ricciardo looked genuinely unfazed, displaying the attitude of someone ready to have the last laugh.
“When people say, ‘so you have a point to prove or anything’ or ‘do you need to keep people happy or please anyone’ – I’m here for myself,” Ricciardo said.
“It’s honestly that because I know I can still do it.”
He added: “I think when the sport for me was kind of nearly taken away, and obviously a year ago there was no guarantee I would be back here, that kind of long-term way of thinking is just not where I’m at.
“So right now, it’s really focused on where I am. We’ve got a big task ahead. Try to do what I can there. Try to kick some butt and then see where the wind takes me.”
Nonetheless, you also can’t help but wonder whether Ricciardo has brought some extra pressure on himself by making it no secret that he wants to end up in a Red Bull seat.
Very few drivers get a second chance in F1, and it’s testament to Ricciardo’s ability and drive that he found his way back to the grid after two poor years at McLaren.
Before he could truly get his feet under the table, however, Ricciardo was talking about his dream goal of making it back to Red Bull.
It’s therefore no surprise that the pressure has ramped up on him so quickly this year – after just two of 24 races to be exact.
Even if his ambitions were obvious anyway, had Ricciardo kept tight-lipped and publicly accepted his seat at RB as a welcome second chance, his performances might’ve been measured with a different yardstick. The external pressure would’ve been held off for that bit longer.
Now he finds himself here, desperately needing to make a statement – and not just for the hundreds of thousands of fans cheering him on at Albert Park this weekend.
DAN RIVAL’S BIG ADVANTAGE
A quick note on Ricciardo’s rival, Yuki Tsunoda.
The 23-year-old knows he’s quick, even if finding the right words to express that is hard.
Not due to English being his second language, but to admit you have an underlying quicker pace than Ricciardo at his home Grand Prix would be a tricky message to get across in the right way.
Nonetheless, Tsunoda did his best to answer the question when asked on Thursday about what advantages he has over Ricciardo.
And his answer might be of some concern for Ricciardo fans given he sees his greatest advantage as one that used to be the Australian’s.
“We’re kind of similar I would say, but probably my strength is braking,” Tsunoda said.
“I have pretty good confidence … so braking is my friend and I’m about to maximise the performance from this.”
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SAINZ RETURN PICKS UP SPEED
Michael Lamonato
Carlos Sainz doesn’t expect to be performing at his best during the Australian Grand Prix weekend as he continues recovering from his appendectomy.
Sainz completed both sessions on Friday — he was third fastest in FP2 — having missed the Saudi Grand Prix to go under the knife.
The Spaniard, who hasn’t trained since, acknowledged the two-week turnaround between surgery and practice wasn’t ideal, but his rate of recovery left him optimistic he could compete in Melbourne.
“It’s obviously going to be tight — it’s 14 days from the operation until I jump in the car on Friday — but possible,” he said in Albert Park on Thursday.
“Obviously [the doctors] don’t know what F1 is and the g-forces and everything, but possible it is, and possible I feel like it will be given how I’m feeling now.
“Will I be at 100 per cent? For sure not. It’s not a lie; 100 per cent would mean spending 10 days training, doing simulator — I haven’t done that over the last 10 days, I’ve just been focused on recovering.
“But will I be fit to race? The feeling right now is yes. I’ll see how I feel [on Friday].”
Sainz, without a contract in 2025 after Ferrari signed Lewis Hamilton to his seat, said he was prepared to take himself out of the car if he felt he was unable to continue.
“Obviously I’m not stupid, and if I don’t feel good [on Friday], I will be the first one to raise my hand and say that I need another two weeks to the next race,” he said.
“I’m the first one that doesn’t want to be in pain or to suffer, to make it any worse. I’m not stupid, and I will be very clear with how I’m feeling and everything.”
Sainz said he had also taken advice from Alex Albon, who made a rapid return from the same surgery in 2022.
“Asking him, he said, ‘Yes, you will feel a bit weird at the beginning but then you get used to it’,” he said.
“Until you put yourself in an F1 car and feel the forces, it’s impossible to know.
“What I know is that today I’m a lot better than yesterday, and yesterday I was a lot better than two days ago.
“With that progress I’m quite encouraged and positive.”
Source Agencies
