“Either we’re not doing something right, or Alpha Tauri is doing something very well”– Max Verstappen gets brutally honest with Red Bull.
Red Bull’s weekend in Turkey is not even close to ideal, as they are trailing against Mercedes in all the track sectors. And the result of the Silver Arrows’ superiority is evident with the qualifying’s results on Saturday.
Max Verstappen finished P3 (now P2) and Sergio Perez P7 (now P6) in qualifying, while Lewis Hamilton finished on pole, though later got downgraded to P11 due to the grid penalty. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas has been promoted to pole after a stunning P2 result.
Meanwhile, Red Bull’s sister team, Alpha Tauri, running on inferior specs, secured P5 and P10 after all the considerations. Thus, Verstappen is far from happy and questioned his team on the performance, especially after being irked by how close Alpha Tauri is to them.
“This was a little better, but of course still not good enough, even if you look at the gaps behind us and how close Alpha Tauri is behind us. Either we’re not doing something right, or AlphaTauri is doing something very well,” he shouts in front of the Ziggo Sport camera.
A vast different claims Max Verstappen
Despite being promoted to P2, Verstappen feels he is at a disadvantage going into the race on Sunday, and rain during the race can make things harder.
“There is very little grip here on the inside and that will also be the case if it rains tomorrow. The start will be tomorrow I think The hardest.” The hardest, but also the most important, right? “That’s right, but I can’t change that of course.”
However, Verstappen sees little hope for the race after evaluating how his car is lagged against Mercedes during the qualifying, and that will reflect in the race until something unusual happens.
“If you are so far behind in qualifying, you should not expect miracles in the race. But you never know what can happen. Just look at Sochi. We’ll see!”
