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Max Verstappen has revealed that he is not a fan of F1 sprint races, admitting that the emotions that come with racing on a Sunday are special for every driver.
Max Verstappen has the best record in the short-lived history of sprint races in the sport, which were first introduced in 2021. The Dutchman has one win and two P2 finishes in the three sprint races held in 2021 and has two wins in two sprint races thus far in 2022.
Despite having a favorable run with the shorter format race, Max Verstappen does not like it as it is not the kind of race he grew up with. In an interview with Motorsport-Magazin during the 2022 F1 Dutch GP weekend, the defending world champion let his feelings be known. The Red Bull man said:
“I just don’t like the sprints. The emotions on a Sunday should be special. That’s the only day you should race. That’s how I grew up. Sunday is the day to race. The sprints we’ve done so far haven’t really changed anything in the results. Everyone starts on the same tyre and finishes the sprint in the same position from which they started.”
As things stand, only one sprint race remains to be run this season and is scheduled to be held in Sao Paolo during the penultimate race weekend of the year.
Max Verstappen has not changed despite being one of Netherlands’ ‘best-earning athletes’, claims Dr. Helmut Marko
Max Verstappen has not let fame or fortune change his personality one bit, according to Dr. Helmut Marko.
Marko is a retired Austrian racing driver now plying his trade as an advisor to the Red Bull team. He is also in charge of the world-class junior drivers' program from which the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz have graduated over the years.
The veteran feels Max Verstappen has had to undergo a difficult transition to grow as an F1 driver and become the force he is now. Marko gave the Dutchman his first F1 outing during a Free Practice session at the 2014 Japanese GP weekend, where Verstappen impressed everyone at the age of 15. He then signed to drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) in 2015.
A year later, Verstappen was promoted to the Red Bull team to replace Daniil Kyvat. He then won the 2016 F1 Spanish GP on his debut to become the youngest GP winner in the history of the sport and has not looked back since.
In an interview with Formule1.nl in the Netherlands ahead of the 2022 F1 Belgian GP, Marko opened up about signing Verstappen as a teenager and watching him evolve into a world champion. The 79-year-old said:
“At 16 he signed his first Formula One contract. It was clear that he had to grow as a personality. I mean, he was still a kid and you still had the preponderance of Jos [Verstappen, Max’s father] at the time. But that actually developed in parallel: the more independent Max became, the more Jos withdrew. In the beginning, this was not always an easy process. Max had two technical briefings: first with the team and then with Jos... It’s clear that something like that can’t go on.”
The 24-year-old has now signed a massive contract with Red Bull that runs until the end of 2028 and has also raked in multiple high-profile sponsorship deals. The Austrian also touched on how Verstappen has not let his superstardom affect him even slightly, adding:
“He developed his own opinion relatively quickly and expressed himself very clearly in interviews. He is a Verstappen, isn’t he? If something doesn’t suit him, he’ll say so. Sometimes, like in Mexico with the stewards, that hasn’t always helped us. But that’s how we are. Max is now 24 and one of the best-earning athletes in the Netherlands, but that hasn’t changed him one bit. He lives his own life and has become calmer after his first world title.”
Verstappen currently leads the 2022 F1 Drivers' World Championship standings with a 93-point buffer over his teammate Sergio Perez in P2. Should his formidable form continue, the Dutchman could successfully defend his title with races to spare.
