Villeneuve refuses to rule Verstappen out of world championship

12:37, 09 Nov

Updated: 13:30, 09 Nov

byBen Winship

Jacques Villeneuve refuses to rule Max Verstappen out of the world championship after an unprecedented Q1 knockout in Brazil.

“No, it's never over. It's a chaotic race here.”

- Jacques Villeneuve

Red Bull Racing have struggled to find a competitive setup all weekend in Brazil as both drivers were knocked out in the first qualifying session on Saturday - Verstappen qualified P16 while Yuki Tsunoda P19.

It was the first ever time that Verstappen has been knocked out in Q1 on pure pace in his Formula One career.

It's not over until its over

The 1997 F1 World Champion has been an outspoken supporter of Verstappen’s title chances and refuses to rule out his chances after qualifying in Brazil.

Villeneuve said on F1TV: “No, it's never over. It's a chaotic race here.”

“There's still other races and Vegas is another chaotic one, but this is a trend that he has to be careful.

Jacques Villeneuve has backed Verstappen's championship charge - Photo: RacePictures

“He said that he changed the car and it made it worse - that's the second race in a row.

“But that's the price to pay when you don't have a teammate. You know, he's alone working on developing that car, moving it forward and just in itself, that's tough.

“But if your teammate makes the team or the car goes slower, you pay a very, very strong price there.”

Setup struggles

Red Bull have struggled to find a competitive window for the RB21 all weekend and a setup change on Verstappen’s car before qualifying appeared to take his performance into the opposite direction.

Verstappen’s mechanics reportedly worked on his car late after qualifying. If the team did work on the car beyond the permitted deadline post-qualifying it would warrant a pit lane start for Verstappen.

This would allow Red Bull to take drastic measures to turn around the RB21’s performance for Sunday’s race, and it could even give them the opportunity to implement a new engine which would benefit them in the remaining races.

There is a ‘slight to moderate’ chance of rain for Sunday’s race, which could provide the chaos and unpredictability needed for Verstappen to overhaul his poor qualifying performance.

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