Villeneuve: "Terrible weekend for Verstappen"

  • Published on 02 Jun 2016 10:29
  • 27
  • By: Rob Veenstra

Max Verstappen's performance in Monaco would have been a sacking offense had another driver committed the same errors. That is the view of outspoken 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, referring to the 18-year-old Dutchman's horror outing last weekend just two weeks after winning in Spain.

"It was a terrible weekend for him," he told the German-language Motorsport-Magazin.com. "He's fast but he made too many mistakes." Verstappen was drafted into Red Bull's race lineup after the Russian grand prix, where his predecessor Daniil Kvyat had caused a first-lap crash which according to Dr Helmut Marko was the result of him not coping with pressure.

But then in Monaco, Verstappen made at least three driving mistakes, including hitting the barriers in qualifying which left him at the back of the grid and then a race-ending crash the following day. "Another driver would now be sent home," Villeneuve claims, "but because it's Max Verstappen, people start to make excuses because he is protected."

Asked if Verstappen's crashes might be justified on the basis that he was trying to make up for not having the same engine specification as his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, Villeneuve exclaimed: "Of course not! He made the same mistake twice, which is unacceptable, but three errors in a weekend is just too much," he added. "But he is loved by Red Bull, loved by the fans -- he is loved by everyone," Villeneuve continued.

Nonetheless, Villeneuve thinks Verstappen does have the potential to be world champion one day. "If he learns from his mistakes then yes," said the French Canadian. "But if he has to go over the limit to be fast, it means he is not fast enough." (GMM)

Replies (27)

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  • Yup the hype was too hard to maintain and led to overdriving = crash.

    • + 0
    • Jun 2 2016 - 10:44
    • So he had one bad weekend and now all his previous 24 GP's are worthless not to mention all his beautiful overtakes and win in GP Spain .. what a bollocks. Jacques Villeneuve also crashed twice in his first 2 races in Monaco and in GP Canada he crashed twice in the "Wall of Champions"

      • + 1
      • Jun 2 2016 - 12:32
    • Klapband

      Posts: 366

      Verstappen and Vettel both changed to the soft tyres in lap 32. The lap times of Vettel were 2.4s and 1.4s faster as Verstappen in lap 33 and 34 in a car which wasn't faster.

      So was Vettel also overdriving or was Verstappen not overdriving but simply made an isolated mistake (which both Vettel and Ricciardo also made (they both had a lockup at exactly the same spot later on in the race))?

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 12:53
    • Blokkie

      Posts: 4

      Not to mention that Villeneuve held his seat after his stupid crash in Magny-Cours 1996.

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 15:19
    • Ah didn't take long for the fanboys to come out with damage control LOL pathetic. Is that the best excuse you can come up with? Two years in a two same place, and now same weekend 3 costly errors in 3 different sessions! LOL

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 15:42
    • Klapband

      Posts: 366

      @mclarenfan1968,

      Good luck with keep calling everyone "fanboys" while they try to bring some nuances into your and Villeneuve's remarks, I'm sure you will be taken serious when you keep doing that. /s

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 17:14
    • CTRA

      Posts: 4,054

      mclarenfan1968 has a Dutch flag behind his name, but he never posts something on de Dutch version of this site.
      Whonder why?
      I think Max took a piss in his coffee, never 1 good word about Max.
      And now with 1 poor result he's happy as a little child in the candy store

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 23:13
    • Ooooo fanboys are out to get me because I burst their bubble LOL keep trying but I doubt you will ever manage to do anything useful beyond blowing smoke up anyone's ass who gives a fanboy verdict of the situation. This is an English chat thread, it shows you fanboys have no respect for the rules of anything if someone trampled your favorite driver, I am no jingoist like you lot. Here is a tip - try to address the main point, diverting to irrelevant points is a sure sign you have run out on ideas ergo lost the argument LOL!

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 02:58
    • Klapband

      Posts: 366

      @mclarenfan1968, I addressed your main point with actual data about Verstappen not overdriving and you respond with completely useless drivel about fanboys because you don't have any substantial counterarguments to bring into the discussion.

      If you fail that massively in trolling, I can only feel sorry for you on how you must be doing in your life because it won't be any different.

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 03:51
    • LOL what data?! You want data?? Ricciardo Pole by a mile only lost win due to RBR incompetence. Max hype boy qualifying crashed, practice crashed. Race - cant even keep the car on the black stuff - crashed.

      Spain was the same story RBR gambling with a perfectly positioned Ricciardo poised for the win. Hype boy lucks in.

      At no point beyond pitstops was Max ever faster than Ricciardo. Everyone gets a chance to post fastest laps a few laps after pitting for new tyres especially if those are new options, if you are going to cite that it shows your mental faculties are pretty poor to start with.

      REKT! That was too easy :D

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 04:08
    • Klapband

      Posts: 366

      So you not only lack troll skills but also lack reading skills. I wrote he wasn't setting fastest laps, Vettel was the one doing that and that your overdriving argument becomes void because of that.

      And yes, Ricciardo was put on a 3 stopper in Spain because he wasn't able to keep his tyres good enough for a long stint, which Red Bull got forced to do because of the undercut threat of Ferrari. If Ricciardo would have made his pit stop in lap 32 he never would have made till the end because he set his car up to qualify ahead of Verstappen while Verstappen had a more race trim.

      But let's wait and see what happens when Verstappen actually gets more comfortable with the car in the not so near future, is smiley still able to deliver with a driver next to him who isn't worse as him?

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 05:06
    • lol nope you are pulling stuff from your butt, Ricciardo had no issues keeping his tyres in check RBR simply tried to cover Vettel off with a bluff in case the two stopper falls off a cliff. Ricciardo was faster throughout. Spin MOAR troll. Ricciardo wasn't convinced of the 3 stopper, he was the one driving but RBR decided anyway. The entire Ricciardo's "tyres cant last" argument was made up none other than the Max fanboy degenerates, even RBR doesn't agree with you fools. LOL

      When you get data and facts you fall back on other irrelevant points. That in and of itself shows you are a clueless troll with a severe fanboy attitude issue when faced with reality ;)

      No let's not wait, we saw everything we need to know in Monaco this year and last year LMAO!!!!

      • + 1
      • Jun 3 2016 - 05:48
    • Klapband

      Posts: 366

      Just wait and see. Max already knows how to drive to the limit of the Pirelli tyres which you do in the races, hence he won in Spain.

      But he still lacks experience in driving the car to the limit because you need to have your set up to be right and the Pirelli tyres allow you only do to one fast lap and then they need to cool down. So accept for a few laps in FP3 and in qualifying he isn't able to drive the car close to the limit, but he will figure it out soon enough.

      Verstappen wasn't pulling anything out of his ass when he repeated 3 times it was about the tyres, but you would have known if you were Dutch...but hey, believe a team boss who doesn't want Ricciardo to have a facepalm because he just got shown up by an 18 year old.

      It doesn't even seem Ricciardo himself was buying what he has been told...""I spoke a lot with the team and had a lot of explanations, the reasons why we pitted, and basically at the time it seemed like the three-stop was the best thing to do."...so they needed to give him lots of explanation and not just one, well, that's what you do if you don't want to tell the actual truth.

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 09:54
    • Bwhahaha this is pure gold "Max knows how to drive to the limit"

      Explains why he crashed 3 times in the same weekend. Yeah he sure can limit himself that way in the barriers. *my jaws hurt from laughing*

      Back outside of your reality distortion field we called it "Max is just not that good hence over-driving and crashed"

      The rest of your conspiracy theory are fun to read and all that but none of it grounded in reality. When the truth is hard to handle the delusions and conspiracies take over, perfectly understandable ;)

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 10:05
    • Vet5

      Posts: 225

      Got to agree with @McLarenfan1968, If he was able to push the car to the knifes edge he wouldn't of crashed so many times in Monaco, and in spain, RBR just wanted another record that can now never be broken, and if Ricciardo wasn't behind Vettel and Raikonnen on the last stint, he would have taken Verstappen out. He basically got Webber'd! But saying that, i'll give the fanboys a chance, lets see how Verstappen plays up in Canada, very easy track, no difficult corners either

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 11:49
    • Klapband

      Posts: 366

      @Vet5, I wrote he knows how to drive to the limit of the tyre because the tyres overheat when pushed too hard. Driving to the limit of the car he doesn't know just yet, because he can't hardly practice that with the tyres overheating after just one lap.

      In FP3 Verstappen made a mistake when trying to find the limit of the car and in qualifying too. Verstappen should not have a problem in the race in Canada when it's a dry race, because he knows these tyres for a much longer time already. In qualifying he still lacks experience with knowing what the limit of the car is.

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 13:18
  • nicovanos

    Posts: 60

    What a load of horse crap. Did he make mistakes? Yes. But not as bad as Jacques makes it to be. Raikkonen made a stupid mistake, Ericsson made a really stupid crash and lets not forget Kvyat crashing into Magnussen ... twice ... again.
    Jacques would not have said this if Max wasn't promoted to RB two races ago and if he hadn't won Spain.

    • + 1
    • Jun 2 2016 - 11:33
    • Jacques makes a mistake every time he opens his mouth...

      • + 1
      • Jun 2 2016 - 14:47
    • JV has won more races and is atleast a world champion, Max is hot air hype with 0 titles. I think JV has this covered. ;)

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 15:47
    • mclarenfan1968 @ Typical, I didn't hear Villeneuve at all after Max his win in Spain. Did he miss that race?

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 20:31
    • kajin

      Posts: 193

      Mclaren you are so stupped go look teletubbies,Jacques who is that guy,they trow him out the formule E because he is nothing,he had luck in the past that he came by Williams otherwise did he never win something in europa

      • + 0
      • Jun 2 2016 - 21:15
    • Says the stupid zealots who have no way to spin 3 crashes in the same weekend LMAO!
      Rekt.

      • + 0
      • Jun 3 2016 - 02:59
  • DRS-zone

    Posts: 315

    Jacques Villeneuve always moarns about nowadays drivers. He's always complaining about something or giving himself credits for something he'd done in the past.

    • + 1
    • Jun 2 2016 - 17:23
  • kajin

    Posts: 193

    He did forget his own crash with the dead of a marshall

    • + 0
    • Jun 2 2016 - 21:10
  • kajin

    Posts: 193

    I think he is dreaming about max,and haves a wet dream about him,18 years old in a new car,new team,are the people that speak that crap about him crazy or not,if you take people like this serious than are you out of your mind.there is one word for them JEALOUS,max is driving a Austin Martin with a salary of 3 million with sponsors.....better than all of us so who is laughing.

    • + 0
    • Jun 2 2016 - 21:32
  • khasmir

    Posts: 893

    LOL, this sure is a hot topic ;-)
    Don't understand why people keep asking Villeneuve his opinion, like anyone cares...

    • + 0
    • Jun 3 2016 - 18:32
  • tonylovesf1

    Posts: 3

    Even more unacceptable:
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEZwcRtwzTo

    • + 0
    • Jun 7 2016 - 19:32

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