Max Verstappen sympathises with Leclerc 'pain'

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in Imola — Photo: © LAT Images

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Verstappen sympathises with Leclerc 'pain'

Leclerc threw away an Imola podium

Ewan Gale

Monday 25 April 2022 19:00

Max Verstappen has insisted Charles Leclerc will know "painful" his late-race Imola spin was and he "doesn't need to hear it" from anyone else.

Reigning champion Verstappen was in a class of one at Imola on the way to his second win of the season but behind, title rival Leclerc was hounding the Dutchman's Red Bull team-mate, Sergio Perez, for second.

But on lap 53, the Ferrari driver took too much kerb at Variante Alta which sent his F1-75 spinning into the barriers, a mistake that robbed him of a seemingly certain podium.

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Leclerc was able to recover to finish sixth after pitting for repairs but addressing the error, Verstappen explained: "The mistake, it's easily done.

"Of course, he was pushing hard to try and fight Checo but… it is painful but I think he knows that himself, you know, he doesn't need to hear that from anyone in here.

"But it's still such a long championship. You can still gain a lot of points. But yeah, it's not great. But you can't change it now. I mean, he doesn't do it on purpose."

Verstappen reveals issue with new generation F1

The close proximity of cars at a technical circuit like Imola was further proof that F1's new cars have achieved the sport's goal of letting drivers race closer to each other.

"I do think that the cars are better to follow," said Verstappen.

"At least you don't have these weird moments anymore of like, big oversteer, big understeer.

"The cars… are all the time when you get within a second are… it's hard to follow because of our cornering speed in a Formula 1 car. That will always be like that."

On one issue that Verstappen has discovered, he added: "But yeah, I do feel it's a bit nicer. Just the problem we have is the tyres. When we get close, you do burn your tyres a bit more than you would like and they overheat a bit more.

"We consistently work with Pirelli anyway, about what we would like and what we would like to improve. So it's also very hard for them because it's a completely new concept.

"We haven't really done a lot of testing so I'm sure now in the coming months or maybe for next year, we can improve things."