Red Bull confirm change to Verstappen’s car after Norris response | F1 | Sport
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed the team made a change to Max Verstappen‘s car ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen has been frustrated with the performance of the RB21 all weekend due to understeer and excessive bouncing in his car. The four-time world champion qualified for the sprint race in sixth and made up two places to finish the event in fourth.
He enjoyed a more positive experience in qualifying to clock the third-fastest time on the grid, only behind fellow title rivals and McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Now, it has been confirmed Verstappen has been running a different Red Bull floor – one the Austrian team first introduced in Monza – throughout the weekend at the Lusail International Circuit.
“The bouncing wasn’t just due to the floor; there were a few other things responsible for it,” Marko, 82, told Sky Germany.
“Yuki Tsunoda was happy with the new floor from the start and got along well with it.
“Max didn’t like it as much, so that was an individual decision.”
Due to Piastri’s win in Saturday’s sprint, Verstappen has dropped down to third in the Drivers’ Standings, 25 points behind leader Norris with two races to go. The F1 season finale takes place in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
On Saturday, Norris hit back at Verstappen’s accusation that the Red Bull driver would have won this year’s Formula 1 world championship “easily” in the Brit’s McLaren car.
Verstappen claimed in an interview earlier this week that he would have won the world title comfortably if he had been driving for McLaren, who secured the Constructors’ Championship back in October.
After fending off Verstappen to finish third in the sprint, Norris continued the mind-games between himself and the Dutchman when he said in his post-race interview that he “never saw” the Red Bull behind him.
Asked about the situation in the post-sprint press conference for the top three, Norris said: “Of course I saw him [Max), but he was never too much of a threat at all. My focus was more just on [second-placed] George [Russell] and seeing how I could keep the tyres in a good place for later.
“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest. He kind of earned the right. He’s won four world championships. I have a lot of respect and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit in general. He’s achieved an incredible amount, more than anyone generally dreams of achieving.
“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about. It depends if you want to listen to it or talk about, like you [the media] love to, or you do what we do as a team, which is just kind of keep our heads down and keep focused.
“Maybe he would have done [won easily], but he hasn’t so far, and he keeps trying.”
