The ‘he knows’ theory behind Max Verstappen’s recent ‘resigned’ demeanour
Max Verstappen could become only the second driver after Sebastian Vettel to win his first four F1 titles in successive years
Conceding he is drawing “big” conclusions from “small” moments, Damon Hill wonders whether Max Verstappen was calm in the face of his Baku troubles because “he knows” the situation will change.
And by that he doesn’t mean Red Bull have found their eureka fix, he means the triple World Champion could have already decided to leave for pastures new.
What’s behind Max Verstappen’s Baku ‘resignation’?
Despite being outqualified by Sergio Perez and lacking grip around the streets of Baku, there were no radio rants or feisty moments from Verstappen during Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Even the moment that Lando Norris overtook him three laps from the end went by without Verstappen defending hard or trying to fight back.
1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, who was a guest pundit on Sky, was perplexed by the lack of fight from the reigning World Champion.
“Max for the last few races sounds downbeat,” he said. “He’s not even feisty in the race and doesn’t fight that hard. Even on the radio, we barely hear him. Something has changed.”
Hill agrees that something has changed in Verstappen’s demeanour.
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Asked about this in Sky’s post-race podcast, Villeneuve’s former team-mate and the 1996 World Champion admitted that while he does “not always agree with Jacques”, on this he has to.
“He [Villeneuve] has got some pretty strong opinions, and some of them are quite shocking in the first and you kind of go, ‘what’s he mean by that?’ “he continued.
“And actually, when you listen to him again, I get what he’s saying completely, and I agree with that.
“I do think there’s almost like a resignation with Max.
“Now, if that’s true what could… I mean, I was expecting more of a toys-out-the-pram experience being that he wasn’t competitive.
“He’s normally very feisty on it with his comments and demanding and basically saying, ‘I can’t, I’m not dealing with this, it’s no good, it’s got to change’.
“And he has said a few things, but I think maybe he can see that within the team there are such substantial problems that it’s no good him just coming on the radio and saying, ‘I’m not happy’.”
That then begs the question, what’s the reason for the change?
Hill says maybe it’s that Verstappen knows he won’t be in the situation for much longer as he’s already decided to leave Red Bull with both Mercedes and Aston Martin courting his services.
“I mean, there’s been all sorts of talk about him talking to other teams,” said Hill. “He’s got to think of the future. Where is the direction of travel from now on if Red Bull are not competitive?
“And so those things can… maybe he’s got his future sorted out, you know, maybe he doesn’t have to rant because he knows it’s going to change.
“I don’t know. I’m just following on from Jacques’ comments and I would agree with him that typically we’d expect a lot more expression of displeasure with things, especially when you’re leading the championship.”
“But,” the Briton concedes, “we’re kind of extrapolating from a small bit of information a big, big answer.”
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