Max Verstappen has complained that one change at Red Bull has prompted laziness. The four-time world champion earned a surprise victory at the Japanese Grand Prix after converting his pole position ahead of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
After a difficult start to the F1 season, Red Bull made a quick change to their driving line-up by replacing Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after just two races. That change was sparked after an emergency meeting following the Chinese Grand Prix, where discussions took place over how to improve the team’s fortunes.
Verstappen was involved in some of those discussions which he was keen to see take place on-site. The critical talks are said to have seen ‘every bolt’ adjusted on the car and Hugh Bird, formerly Sergio Perez’s race engineer, has returned to Verstappen’s side of the garage.
The Dutch racer was critical of the tendency for meetings to take place remotely and believes more detail and productivity can be achieved in person at the team’s Milton Keynes-based factory.
Speaking to Viaplay, he said: “Do you know what is a bit of the problem at the moment in the world?
“A lot of people, first of all, want to work from home and no longer at the factory. I think that’s already a big problem because that makes you lazy.
“Then you’re not fully occupied with what you have to do, because at home you’re always more easily distracted anyway than when you’re with colleagues at the factory.
“Sometimes it’s nice, when you’re at the factory then, to just look people in the eye. Then you can always convey a bit more information than what sometimes happens here, via a camera or a headset.
“I think that is sometimes very important to keep doing that – more old-school communicating.”
Verstappen was pleased with what his team offered in Japan however, despite the plaudits being predominantly reserved for the 26-year-old’s impressive performance. He was proud of how the team maximised their performance.
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“The whole race I saw two orange cars in my mirror, and yeah, especially those last 20 laps, we were pushing quite hard out there,” he said. “You could just feel the tyres were degrading more and more. But you had to keep on fighting it, basically being on the limit.
“Very proud with this result. Most of it, of course, was done [in qualifying], being able to start from pole, because around here I think it’s just very hard to follow.
“You only have one DRS zone as well here, so it’s very tough. Plus, the degradation seemed quite low, so you do a one-stop. But still, we take it, we really maximised the weekend and I’m very proud of everyone.”
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