Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has admitted that in the first races of the 2018 season he was pushing too hard, as the Dutchman explained he desperately wanted to get a good result early in the RB14.
It's hard to imagine now, as Verstappen's last 15 races of the season have been nothing short of incredible, but the 21-year-old endured a lot of criticism at the start of 2018. In Australia, he spun his car around mid-race, losing several places, while also crashing in qualifying in Bahrain and hitting Sebastian Vettel during the Chinese Grand Prix.
The final straw was in Monaco, when he threw away a potential pole position and a Red Bull front row lock-out by ramming the wall in FP3 and damaging his car quite severely.
When asked if he simply was in less of a rush in the second half of the season and had fewer accidents because of that, Verstappen was quick to nuance it a bit more.
"I wouldn't call it rushed," he told Dutch newspaper AD.
"I just wanted a good result too much in those first races. It wasn't rushed, I was just, how do you say it, too eager. Too eager, but not too rushed.
"In Shanghai, for example, I could've waited for a lap to overtake Lewis, but I wanted to pass him in that one corner. I thought 'that spot will do'. He pushes me off the track slightly, and I lose my place to Daniel.
"Maybe if we would've done that race over now, I would've picked a different spot to overtake him. But in hindsight, it's easy to say."