31/05/2016
NEWS STORY
It wasn't quite 'hero to zero', but it's fair to say that after the high of Barcelona, the unforgiving streets of Monaco brought Max Verstappen back to earth with a bang.
His heavy crash at Ste Devote in 2015 seemingly a distant memory, the youngster was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday after hitting the barriers at the Swimming Pool exit, and then compounded his Monaco misery by hitting the barriers at Massenet during the race next day.
"I learned a lot of things," he admits in a video for Red Bull, "to stay out of the wall first of all.
"Now, we analyse how and what went wrong and why we got into this situation," he continues. "But, it is all part of the learning curve and again getting more experience.
"I think the beginning of the race was very good, we showed great pace, sometimes the fastest lap around, and I think it was all coming together very well," he said. "We got back into the points and then unfortunately, when we fitted the soft tyres, I made a mistake and hit the wall. That is not how you want to end the weekend, especially when your team does a great job to rebuild the car after qualifying. They deserved much more."
The youngster also confirmed that in Montreal he will have the benefit of the upgraded Renault engine.
"I'm finally getting the new engine," he smiled, "so I'm definitely looking forward to that as well. You have more horsepower and better driveability so all in all it will give you some lap time."