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Day After Unmasking Helmut Marko’s “Upgrade” Mistake, Max Verstappen Exposes His Another Blunder on Live Television With Unreal Prediction

Published 06/03/2023, 7:30 AM EDT

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Do you recall how Fernando Alonso was watching Lance Stroll overtake during the Miami GP? And yes, he was watching it on the big circuit screens while driving around in his AMR23. Looks like Max Verstappen has learned from the best, as he recently exposed something on live television because of his high attention. And it wasn’t to appreciate something but to expose a blunder as he made an unreal prediction. What was this prediction? 

The RB19s underfloor got exposed last time around in Monaco when Sergio Perez crashed in Q1. After Christian Horner made the comments about how it’s not good to look under someone’s skirt, Helmut Marko came out and suggested that Red Bull be going to try something new in Barcelona. Nevertheless, Max Verstappen called out Marko’s upgrade mistake as he turned down the hype around the upgrades.

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The 25-year-old advised that the Red Bull Taskmaster got a bit too excited around the upgrades thing. Whether there were upgrades or not, Max Verstappen dominated the Free Practice sessions at the Spanish GP on Friday, finishing P1 in both sessions. The Dutchman also had one of the highest laps counts for the day, with a very dominant long-run face to complement it. 

However, it was during his long run when Max Verstappen exposed another Helmut Marko blunder. During his final long-run stint in FP2, Max Verstappen was radioed by his team. The Dutchman, while driving his car, heard a strange noise in the background on the radio and asked if Helmut Marko’s phone was ringing. To which the reply was yes. It is amazing how Max Verstappen could not only tell that a phone was ringing, but accurately predicted whose phone it was. 

Despite enduring the inconvenience of listening to Marko’s phone ringing on the radio, Max Verstappen was overall happy with his day as he explained in his post-race debrief.

Max Verstappen on the RB19 being in a good operating window at Barcelona 

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The last chicane at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was traded for 2 new fast corners at the end of the lap. Only cars with great stability and high downforce were able to take the corner flat out. Verstappen took it flat out, Alonso had a minor lift, whereas Mercedes and Ferrari had quite a big lift compared to Alonso and Verstappen. Nevertheless, all this points to the fact that the Dutchman is comfortable with the car. 

via Reuters

According to skysports.com, Max Verstappen said, “The car was in a good window and you try to fine-tune a few things here and there but short run, long run everything seemed quite good. From my side, I felt very comfortable in the car looking after the tires. I still need to look at the lap times of others but from our side, it was a good day.”

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Watch this story: “Drunk” Max Verstappen Partying with the DJ after his Monaco GP Win

What do you think about Max Verstappen listening to the radio very closely? Is he trying to copy Fernando Alonso, who was watching Lance Stroll on screen while driving?

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Written by:

Pranay Bhagi

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Pranay Bhagi is an F1 writer at EssentiallySports, who has always been passionate about sports and writing. With a degree from a prestigious institute, he has channeled his enthusiasm into sports journalism, particularly F1, a sport that has captivated him for over a decade. Pranay's deep-rooted love for the sport began during the Sebastian Vettel era, and he has been following it religiously ever since.
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Edited by:

Varunkumaar Chelladurai