by VALERIO BARRETTA
Verstappen and the China taboo
It seems strange to say this, but it's the truth: there are circuits on which Max Verstappen has not yet won in Formula 1. One of these is back on the calendar this year, and it is the Shanghai circuit, where Super Max achieved “only” a third place in 2017. This year the world champion wants to break the taboo: he has the ability and the car to do it, and on Sunday he will start as the clear favourite.
Verstappen's words
The Dutchman, however, has no intention of lowering his guard and underlines how Red Bull will have to be good at dealing with a circuit on which all the teams start from scratch, having no data with the ground effect cars: “The GP will be a bit of an unknown. From the track's point of view, it looks like they repainted it, rather than resurfaced it“, these are the words of the three-time world champion. “I don't know what effect it has on track grip, it's an aspect we need to keep under control. It's the same for everyone, but we just need to have a good FP1 and hope we don't have to fine-tune the car too much. This will help us face the rest of the weekend in the best possible way“.
The new format
Verstappen had words of praise for the new Sprint format, which allows cars to be modified until Saturday afternoon (between the short race and qualifying) and therefore gives teams and drivers an extra day to get ready for the race. competition: “The new format makes more sense. The most annoying thing about the previous version was that you went straight into qualifying, and if you didn't get the set-up right you were stuck with that setup for the rest of the weekend. This could really hurt your weekend“.
“I think in general with Sprint there is always an extra question mark, which I think is a good thing for F1. As far as I'm concerned, it's an unknown at the moment. We have never driven here with these new cars, so I don't know how we will fare. Time will tell and I'm not too worried“.
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