Doornbos: "You could already see the panic in the garage of Verstappen"

F1 News

15 September 2020 at 15:59
  • GPblog.com

The first race in Mugello provided a lot of spectacle, with no less than eight dropouts during the Tuscan Grand Prix. Although Mercedes managed to win a 1-2 in Mugello, enough happened in the midfield. Unfortunately for Red Bull Racing the race was soon finished on the side of Max Verstappen. Due to engine problems the Dutchman fell far back and eventually the race ended in the gravel pit.

Robert Doornbos had hoped for a good result from Verstappen, but in the end that did not happen. "It just wasn't the race of Red Bull and Verstappen. After Monza, where he dropped out, this was his second outing in a short time. Max was only able to really race one corner in the end, but the problems actually started before the start", explains Doornbos in his column on Ziggo Sport.

Unacceptable for Red Bull

"There we heard him complaining on the onboard radio about a strange noise in the engine and that the engine could not run stably. We also saw a bit of panic in the garage. Then his super-mechanics tried to fix it, but if you look at the start you can see the problems," says Doornbos. Verstappen did make a very good start, but that didn't end well in the end.

"Max was already complaining about the engine and Kimi Raikkonen finally torpedoed him out of the race. That's not even the worst of it. The most annoying thing is that you indicate that you have a problem with the same power unit as in Monza, with which there were also problems. They didn't change anything at the time, which indicates that they had solved the problems. But now it turns out to be exactly the same problem and that's actually unacceptable for a top team like Red Bull", concludes Doornbos.