2 days Ago By Michelle
Former Red Bull junior Jaime Aguersuari has rubbished suggestions the Red Bull car is designed to suit Max Verstappen, insisting it’s the Dutchman’s ability to “understand how to drive the car” that sets him apart from his team-mates. Verstappen will have a new team-mate at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull have swapped Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson after the latter struggled in the first two races. The decision was made in part to protect Lawson, team principal Christian Horner speaking of a “duty of care to protect and develop” the New Zealander, while Tsunoda’s experience will help “develop the current car”.
It will also give Red Bull a better idea as to whether Lawson’s issues were driver or car related amidst almost constant speculation that Red Bull’s RB cars are designed with Verstappen in mind. This is something Sergio Perez first raised in 2023 when his season during the midst of his brutal qualifying slump. 👉 The big Red Bull question that will be answered after Lawson/Tsunoda swap 👉 Explained: Why Red Bull swapped Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda 18 months later Perez was out, Lawson was in and now Lawson is out, and Tsunoda is in.
However, former Red Bull junior Alguersuari is adamant that no team on the F1 grid would design a car with only one driver in mind. Instead, he puts Verstappen’s advantage down to the four-time World Champion’s ability to understand how he needs to drive the car in any given situation. “There’s this whole story that the car is built around Max.
There’s no engineer in the world that builds a car for a certain driving style,” he told talkSPORT . “All drivers know that an understeering car is definitely slower than a slightly pointy oversteering car. That’s crystal clear since you drive in Formula Ford or Formula 3 or Formula 4 or whatever.
“But then during the weekend, you just develop your setup with your engineer, with weight transfers, with sprints, with the height of the car. And then you have your driving style. “It’s crystal clear that Max has a very pointy driving style and a very certain driving style, which he has developed during years and experience and knowledge, which is unbelievable the way he drives and the way he just performs.
“Nobody is able, and I want to be very clear with that, nobody is able to cope with the problems that Max might be able to feel. “Let’s say he starts to feel grainy on the front left and starts to feel understeer. And the way he handles certain situations, certain problems with his car, nobody is able to cope with those problems as he does.
“So let’s understand this for real. It’s not that Red Bull has developed a car that only fits this kind of driving style. No, you are able to go in that car, but then you have to understand how to drive this car.
“Max understands how to drive every single situation under every single circumstance because he has been trained and he has the talent enough to feel every single sensation or finding grip in an incredible and such an unbelievable way that nobody is able to feel and find.” He went on to call the 27-year-old the “best driver ever” in Formula 1, explaining: “That’s because of his whole education, because of his whole experience, his whole mindset, it’s unbelievable to see what he did in Australia and especially driving a car which is not at all the best on the grid. “He’s just able to drive with every kind of situation or problem in a better way than anybody else.
And that’s it. It’s simple. “[It’s his] intelligence, how he reads the car, how he feels the car, how he manages the tyres, the race, how he performs when he’s out of the car and understands the dynamics.
“It’s a lot in Formula 1. It’s a lot of work going out behind the scenes. When you take your helmet off, you go back to the factory and you want to make sure how you want this car to perform and how do you want this car to be set up.
“How do you understand the dynamics of the car when you are out of the car. So there’s a lot of things going on when you remove your helmet.” Read next: Daniel Ricciardo returns with secret F1 paddock visit in Marko reveal.
