Red Bull F1 legend reveals SCARY Max Verstappen crash details

Max Verstappen

Red Bull legend reveals SCARY Verstappen crash details

Max Verstappen crashed at the 2021 British GP

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 12 January 2025 17:00

Legendary Formula 1 engineer Adrian Newey has revealed some scary details about Max Verstappen's infamous crash at the 2021 British Grand Prix.

Newey's link-up with Red Bull spanned nearly 20 years, bringing the team eight constructors' titles and six drivers' championships, many of them for Verstappen.

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One of those drivers' titles came following a fiercely-contested championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2021, when Verstappen came out on top following an overtake on the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi.

The season was defined by a plethora of stunning battles for race victories between the pair, as well as several collisions, including at the Italian, Saudi Arabian and British grands prix.

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The race started with Verstappen on pole but, after a great Hamilton getaway, the pair were jostling for position for the majority of the first lap.

As Hamilton went for an overtake on Verstappen heading into Copse corner, the pair came together, with their tyres touching at high speed, sending Verstappen flying off the track and into the barriers.

While Verstappen was helped out of his car and appeared to be okay despite the hefty impact with the barriers, Newey revealed the concerns of the Red Bull team amid the terrifying collision.

"I think Max’s one at Silverstone was the last one where we thought, ‘Is he okay? Is he badly hurt in there?’" Newey revealed via the High Performance podcast.

"And then when he did come on the radio, because he was so badly winded, he was just grunting, and you don’t know what that means.

"He was very sore. He had a quite nasty concussion. He was very sore for a week after, but he was okay.

"So those sorts of accidents still can happen, and do happen. The one at Spa in the Formula 2 race with Anthoine [Hubert], was horrific, and it’s never going to be 100 per cent safe."

Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Adrian Newey Abu Dhabi