Red Bull and Verstappen praised despite tough weekend: 'In their DNA to do that'

07:56, 08 Jul

Co-author:Kada Sárközi

byHidde Korte

Last weekend, Max Verstappen had a great Saturday and surprisingly claimed pole position at Silverstone. However, his Sunday did not go the same way. Despite this, Robert Doornbos values the choices made by Red Bull highly.

Verstappen managed to secure a surprising pole on Saturday, but couldn't keep up on Sunday. The Dutchman's car was set up for a dry race and therefore had a challenging day in wet conditions. Doornbos also noticed this, but sees the positives of it when talking at the Race Café of Ziggo Sport.

Red Bull follows a different philosophy than McLaren

‘’I think it's really cool that they try this, if you enter the weekend with the same philosophy as McLaren: ‘We go for average to high downforce and tackle the fast corners and lose on the straight’, then you're just trailing behind. So, it's in the DNA of Max and his engineers to see if they can make a difference on Saturday, but you do that with the idea that it will be dry on Sunday. That you can easily overtake and you are not being overtaken.’’

However, on Sunday, it ended up raining. ‘’Then that low-downforce is actually a nightmare to drive. Those high-speed corners, I'm not even talking about braking. You saw him sliding on those intermediates. The front wheels were sliding, then you just cook the rear tires and then it's over. He must have been swearing in the car.''

Great Sunday for Nico Hülkenberg

While Verstappen disappointed on Sunday, Nico Hülkenberg drove a great race. He managed to move up from P19 to P3 to finish on the podium for the first time in F1. Verstappen was the first to congratulate the German, who was impressed by the Dutchman's reaction.

On the other hand, there was substantial criticism of the McLaren driver duo. Norris and Piastri seemed to ignore Hülkenberg on the podium.