“Max being an absolute nuisance for the race leader” – Former F1 driver believes Max Verstappen uses wild tactics to win the race

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer thinks Red Bull’s Max Verstappen makes an absolute nuisance of himself at safety car restarts.

The battle between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc continued in the second race of the season in Jeddah. Verstappen won the battle this time around and bagged 25 points.

Leclerc was leading the race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit until the Dutchman overtook him late in the Grand Prix after a thrilling DRS battle between the two.

The two drivers were also involved in a short battle behind the safety car which was triggered by Nicholas Latifi.

Leclerc stood P1 and Verstappen was P2 before the restart. However, according to Jolyon Palmer the Dutchman was using his usual tactics to overtake his rival.

Palmer explained that Verstappen tries to get side-by-side with the race leader at the restart to take the preferred line.

Palmer explained, “Max has a restart technique where he likes to get side-by-side with the leader and stop them turning in where they want to be. Charles just didn’t bite.”

“He forced Max slightly wide and stayed in the lead, no DRS of course on the restart. So the pressure wasn’t as bad but Max was really trying to force the issue with that side-by-side.”

To put it in simple words, Palmer said, “What he’s doing is he’s stopping Charles from opening to the corner.”

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Max Verstappen weaves his tactics

Further explaining how Verstappen operates to take on the lead, the Briton said that while Charles is aiming to get to the outside line to be able to swing into the left-hander that’s coming up, Verstappen is just sitting alongside him.

“Charles wants to be heading in that direction on the outside so he can swing into the left-hander that’s coming up and get the most speed through the corner.”

“But because Max is alongside, he’s going to have a much better reaction time because there’s less distance that he can lose, he has a nice view of when Leclerc is going as well and he’s stopping Leclerc from getting to that outside line that he is wanting,” explained the former F1 driver.

“Max doing his little weaving, Charles is accelerating and braking on the throttle and brakes all to try and get the tyre temps up. But the whole way through this, Max is just sitting there alongside.

“He doesn’t overtake, he’s just sitting there, just being an absolute nuisance for the race leader,” he further added.

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Is this strategy legal?

After listening to Palmer explain the situation, Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi asked if Verstappen’s tactics are even legal.

“I was wondering if that is allowed because at the end you are impeding the guy at the front. I think it is great because it causes some chaos but I don’t know is allowed.”

Palmer replied: “So long as you don’t overtake. Remember in Abu Dhabi where he just about did, it is a fine margin.”

In the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen tried the same move on Lewis Hamilton, trying to cut off Hamilton on the restart.

“He even caught up with Lewis briefly and that was still being investigated by the stewards,” Palmer said. “Then he was on the racing line, so Hamilton could not really cut the corner.”

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