Verstappen: 'People have misunderstood me about this'

Max Verstappen finished second in Bahrain last Sunday and therefore the Dutchman joined the press conference. Here he was asked, among other things, what he thinks about drivers who might consider not getting into the car after such a heavy incident as what happened to Grosjean. Verstappen said that if he were team boss, he would show the driver the door.

Drivers know the risks

In the preview of Red Bull Racing, he comes back on earlier statements to give them some more context, given the possible misinterpretation. Verstappen: "I think people misunderstood what I meant. What I was trying to say is that as drivers we know the risks when we get in the car and if anyone has doubts they should consider stopping racing.

"There is nothing wrong with that if you feel uncomfortable to race but we are part of a team and they rely on us to do our job which is drive the car," said Verstappen who says you can't just pull back. Although of course that depends on the situation, which ended well in Grosjean's case.

Whole other Sunday

"Had Romain not walked away obviously things would have been very different on Sunday. I think back in the 60s and 70s it was way more dangerous and the drivers of that era were still going out on track because they knew it was their job and that's what they loved to do, even though they knew the risk was very high of losing their friends around them."

A concern that is a little less relevant now, because safety has increased enormously. That is exactly the reason why Grosjean got off very well in terms of circumstances. "The safety in place now is incredible and I respect everyone's own decisions but that is how I feel. Nobody ever wants to see an accident like that but all that really matters is that Romain is ok."