Max Verstappen’s former performance engineer has recently opened up about his experience of working with Max. In the meantime, Max is looking ready to fight for the win at home this weekend.
Ahead of the upcoming Dutch GP to bring an end to the summer season break of 2023, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is looking like a potential contender to equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of most consecutive race wins.
Verstappen’s Dutch GP challenge goes beyond Vettel’s record
Currently, Max Verstappen is averaging 26.2 points a weekend, winning 10 out of 12 races so far this season. Of these 10 races, the last 8 have been back-to-back wins.
On the other hand, Sebastian Vettel holds the record for most consecutive wins with 9 back-to-back victories. Therefore, if Max wins this weekend, he will equal Sebastian Vettel’s record. In his current form, it would not be surprising if breaks the record altogether.
However, it was opined by ESPN F1, that Max’s ambitions are not as small as the record for most consecutive race wins this weekend. While breaking records might be satisfying to the reigning world champion, his primary focus this weekend will probably be to win on home soil, in the Netherlands.
A fact that supports this argument is that Max is running a special home design for his helmet, with the Netherlands flag’s colors.
Engineer reveals easy Max Verstappen collaboration in dominant 2023 season
Verstappen’s former performance engineer Blake Hinsey worked with Max in the years 2016 and 2017, after which he moved back to the factory to take up a role in development instead, to avoid all the travelling.
Recently, he spoke about his experience working with Verstappen, stating, “I’ll be honest, like working with him was probably one of the easiest drivers I had to work with. The communication loop was super tight.”
Continuing, he said “A lot of it was nonverbal. I’d look through the data at night, have a chat with him, you know before he left Friday night. What do you think about this? The tools, talk with GP [Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappenās race engineer] about the setup and that was it.”
He also compared Max’s position when he worked with him to how things are now, saying “Max is sitting here winning world championships and I was at the time performance engineering a second/third place team and he’s, like driving effectively on easy mode, not much challenge and all the races and travel.”
Do you think Max Verstappen will break even more records this season? Given his recent altercations over the radio with GP, is Max still “easy to work with?” Comment what you think down below!
