Verstappen questions "weird" F1 reliability issues

Max Verstappen

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Verstappen questions "weird" F1 reliability issues

Teams have struggled all season

Ewan Gale

Tuesday 24 May 2022 17:07 Updated: 13:28

F1 championship leader Max Verstappen is unsure what is causing the spate of reliability issues up and down the grid after further problems arose at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Red Bull had already suffered three retirements in the opening five races whilst also experiencing issues in Miami's Friday practice sessions on Verstappen's car before Sergio Perez almost failed to finish with a power unit problem.

But other teams have also struggled with reliability in this new era of F1 and on Sunday in Barcelona, Mercedes came close to retirement with both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton whilst Charles Leclerc and Guanyu Zhou did drop out of the race, raising questions over the reliability of Ferrari's power unit.

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Asked if he felt there was a reliability concern with the new generation of cars, Verstappen - who led home a Red Bull one-two in Spain - replied: "It shouldn't really be car related because like the engines and stuff are pretty much the same.

"Of course, the fuel has changed a little bit, but it's a bit weird.

"Yeah. also from our side, of course, we had already two retirements where before we were always really strong on reliability, so it's a bit difficult to tell. It's also not major issues that we had.

"I don't know, of course, about Ferrari, but from our side, it’s little things and yeah, we are trying to be on top of that, but I don't think it's specifically car related."

Verstappen praises Red Bull's flexibility

Verstappen's race wasn't straightforward either as technical gremlins relating to his DRS activator caused frustration when sat behind Russell's Mercedes.

Red Bull switched strategies and the Dutchman was eventually able to overcome his difficulties to win and take over the championship lead.

But asked if the constant reliability issues were of concern to him, he explained: "That issue with the DRS, of course, was quite costly but at the end, we still won the race, so as a team we are quite flexible.

"We adapt quickly if we have issues and we try to work around it, even during the race, so that's good. But, yeah, of course, we tried to make sure that that doesn't happen again. But we didn't retire which other teams did.

"So that's already a good improvement and you can see, it completely swings the championship around again. So from our side, yeah, we just have to try and be really consistent and try not to make too many mistakes.

"I mean, you're not a robot, I mean mistakes will happen. But yeah, we'll try to minimise it."