Max Verstappen continued his poor run of form into the Monaco Grand Prix. Only this time the mistake he made was very costly for him and the team. After crashing heavily in FP3, he had to miss the entire part of qualifying because of a gearbox change. His crash was similar to the one he had at the same race in 2016. Since the qualifying is the most important part of the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen faced heavy criticisms from Red Bull chiefs and others.
With a points finish at P9, Verstappen was very vocal about his critics. He said he understood and owned up to his mistake very well.
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“These are painful moments but I think it’s necessary to get better,” Verstappen told Ziggo Sport.
Sometimes you have a year that does not work out for a while, but it’s much worse if you’re not fast enough — and that’s not the case.
“I do not need that criticism, I know very well what I did wrong and what needs to be improved. They are not great moments but sometimes you need them to learn the hard lessons.
While critics, including Christian Horner, have called for Verstappen to reconsider his aggressive driving, Verstappen seemed to have finally accepted it.
“I know what I have to do and what not,” he said. “I cannot permit myself to go all in and see what the outcome is. That’s just the situation I am in at the moment.
“I just didn’t want to go too risky [on Sunday] and have a crash because I cannot be in that position now. I think I did everything [in the race] with a certain margin. If I would have taken a bit more risk I don’t think I would have got past the guys ahead of me.”
With a shunt at the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen has had contacts in all the races this year. He stands 6th in the championship with 35 points.
