Verstappen has special driving style in dirty air: 'Manipulates his car'

During the Hungarian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were not fighting at the front of the field, but both had to fight back from the rear towards the points. Hamilton managed to drive to the podium without damage, while Verstappen finished on the edge of the points with damage. According to Peter Windsor, there is something striking about the driving style of the two title rivals in dirty air.

"Max has got his platform, like Lewis and Charles, and he’s manipulating the front of the car to give him the grip level he needs to get to his rotation point. He is doing that from a much straighter approach to a much earlier apex," Windsor explained in his technical video analysis. In Verstappen's case, it's easy to see how he deals with the dirty air around his Red Bull.

Verstappen handles dirty air well

"If Max feels that the car in front is giving him enough dirty air and turbulence to take away the grip at the front. Almost by osmosis, not by a thought process, he is feeling that when he hits the dirty air, because it happened a lot before, he knows what the front is going to do so he’s going to prepare the front for that effect and he’s going to give the car, maybe a little bit more steering lock and come out of the brake pedal pressure at a slightly slower rate to make sure the front doesn’t come up quite as quickly."

Windsor sees Verstappen asking more of his front end in dirty air, but not doing it in a way that makes him use up more of his tyres. "He's taking all that action while his car can handle it well." Windsor then praises Verstappen for being so in control of that skill.“Those drivers are doing that completely naturally. It is giving them that ability to do adjust to what is going to happen next from the dirty air in front of them," Windsor concluded.