Frustrated Verstappen says he was “much faster” than Sainz

2016 Australian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen described his Australian Grand Prix as “very frustrating and disappointing” after his team mate moved ahead of him during their final pit stops.

Verstappen had a slow pit stop due to what he called a “mis-communication between us”, but during the race he complained to his team on the radio that they had given Carlos Sainz Jnr an advantage by bringing him in for his final pit stop before Verstappen.

“How many times I said I have problems with the tyres?” Verstappen asked the team at the time, adding: “I wanted to pit first, [censored by FOM].” Verstappen rejoined the track behind Sainz.

“I think the whole race before that I was much faster so I was pulling away,” Verstappen told reporters after the race, “and then we had the mis-communication and then I got stuck behind and no chance to get past”.

Verstappen repeatedly urged his team to have Sainz let him past. At one point Sainz was warned to “push… otherwise we will swap next lap”, after which he overtook Jolyon Palmer ahead of him.

Verstappen followed his team mate past the Renault but continued to complain to the team on the radio that they “don’t let me past”, adding “it’s a [censored by FOM] joke”.

Afterwards Verstappen, who started fifth on the grid, said there was “definitely more in it than P10”.

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Keith Collantine
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109 comments on “Frustrated Verstappen says he was “much faster” than Sainz”

  1. Yes Max was faster! Sainz forcing the first piststop after a lot of pressure from Hamilton ruined the whole STR strategy.

    1. Franz Tost (Team Principal): “Both drivers did a good start. Max came back from the first lap in 4th position, Carlos was 7th. We kept a fast pace in this first stint. Carlos’ pit-stop went well, by undercutting Massa. After the red flag, when the race was restarted, Max was 5th and Carlos 6th. But in the following laps we lost the pace. Carlos had a lot of front locking. Therefore we called him for an early pit stop. We changed our strategy and sent him out on medium tires. Within the next three laps also Max came into the pits, but the team was not prepared for this stop, as we did not call him. Therefore he lost 7 seconds, which put him in 12th position. This result is very disappointing for us, as we had the speed to finish in a much better position. The only positive aspect is the knowledge that the STR11 is very competitive.”

    2. Chris Phillips
      20th March 2016, 15:19

      Sainz was stuck behind Palmer, if he was faster why didnt he just pass Sainz?

      1. the same reason why Max couldn’t pass Sainz. A lot of people seem to be ignorant about the fact that since the beginning of last year, it has been made almost impossible to pass people given the lower nose profile and other rule changes. Sure, there are some overtaking events, but usually when there is great disparity between tire performance or a mistake is made, or a brash maneuver.

        What I don’t understand is how that kid gets allowed to act like a fool and not get called out for it. I found his behavior on the radio to be lacking in restraint and understanding.

    3. Max drove like a mad men after the strange pitstop mishap. Max loves to smoke those rear tyres, what control!

  2. He was much faster and robbed of fourth or fifth by a multitude of factors, but doesn’t excuse his response once behind Sainz.

  3. As I heard the radio messages, he was given the go ahead to overtage Sainz when he asked for it. He was fast enough to do so. He didnt need to stay behind.

    He cant blame Sainz or the team for not letting him by in a race situation.
    As much as I like the kid on the track, he needs to cool his temper.

    1. the go ahead was not a team order though, they just let him try. I’m glad Sainz did not let him past, as Verstappen too may not have passed the cars in front. after Verstappen hit his teammate and nearly took both of them out of the race, he caught up to sainz again, but not because he was faster but because sainz was stuck by another slower car, that had enough power to keep the the 2015 Ferrari engine toro rosso behind. was fast all weekend and deserved to finish ahead of Verstappen. Verstappen should keep his mouth shut after nearly taking both of them out of the race, he failed at overtaking his teammate, that is why he is hurt. Toro Rosso does not need to use team orders as they are not title challengers, and why would Sainz give up a place from nothing, and toro rosso didn’t use a team order. I really don’t get why Verstappen is complaining and slamming his team for his own failure to pass a teammate, who is also a competitor. in the first race, with a red flag situation and then fighting around 10th place, Verstappen had no right to push his team to try to enforce team orders. he can go cry a river tonight, but he and Sainz will do well in the next races, the stars of the future in a great chassis.

      1. Deserved to finish in front of him???
        Sainz was more defending his position than pushing to overtake Palmer this ruïned both chances of finishing into more points
        Not very smart for someone who says he’s a teamplayer
        We will see who’s better during the season i think Verstappen !

  4. Well, thanks Max for the entertainment on talk radio today. YEs, I get it that you were upset about the strategy. And you were probably able to go a lot faster during large parts of the race. But then we don’t know that Sainz hadn’t been complaining about the tyres for as long as Max had.

    And both were stuck behind Palmer, as soon as Sainz passed, Max profited from Palmer being off line due to that pass to follow through. Later both were stuck behind Bottas, who was probably stuck behind Hulk himself. And neither was able to pass.
    We saw how hard it was to pass, Hamilton had no good chance to pass Sainz either, despite being a lot faster etc, But that is racing. You can be faster, but you just have to find away past them. Not ask the team to do half the work for you.

    But in the end this tussle helped make the race a good watch, so again, thans Max, thanks Carlos and thanks STR for the entertainment

    1. In my opinion Toro Rosso should have told both guys that Max would get 3 laps to overtake Bottas. If he does not succeed, he gives back the position. After 10/15 laps it was clear that Sainz was not capable of the overtake, letting Max try to overtake Sainz on his own is a too big risk of crashing both cars (overtaking your teammate on old tires is tricky:s).

      1. They can tell them all they want, but really if you think you are faster just get past. Max had as tough a job passing Sainz as Sainz had passing Palmer. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised when Sainz would argue that having not only to mind the car ahead but also watch his teammate in the back made the job of clearing Palmer even harder!

        1. Fair point about the car behind you. However, it is way more difficult to overtake a car of a teammate than another car. The usual advantages of your car or disadvantages of the other car don’t apply, leaving only a relatively risky overtake which, if it succeeds, would still leave TR with 3 points total. From a team perspective I would have made the call to prevent this.

    2. Max is cry baby. He should remember be ignored team orders in Singapore last year. In an earlier race Sainz had let Max overtake on team orders. if he was quick let him overtake on the track.

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        20th March 2016, 21:06

        And that, as they say, is that!!! Not a lot else to say… :-D

      2. Absolutly RIGHT !!!!! …. MAX !!! taste your own medicin from Singapore lats year !!!!

    3. http://enPOINTmclarenf-1POINTcom/indexPOINTphp?page=chart&gp=956&graf=3&dr1=Max%20Verstappen&dr2=Carlos%20Sainz%20JrPOINT

      Max was clearly faster than Sainz. Sainz took the undercut himself…and never had the results for the team in mind. Sainz has as much to do with this crappy result then Max with his attitude

        1. The most interesting comparisons are these:

          http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page=chart&gp=956&graf=3&dr1=Max%20Verstappen&dr2=Valtteri%20Bottas

          Or even:

          http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page=chart&gp=956&graf=3&dr1=Max%20Verstappen&dr2=Romain%20Grosjean

          That is, Verstappen was still pulling away from the medium cars behind him whatever he thought about his tires. So in my opinion the team was right to keep him in track. Now he ended up behind those cars. Whatever he felt about the tires he was still faster.

          There is good insight about this in James Allen’s strategy report.

      1. Yeah it was Sainz’s responsibility to track his teammate’s race. /s

        1. It is Sainz’s responsibility to put the team ahead of himself.

          1. It’s team’s responsibility to tell them when to come in or not. They did call Sainz in for a pit stop. They didn’t call Verstappen in but he came anyway. Was he thinking of the team then… Not sure what people expect Sainz to do. This is worse than saying Hamilton should have been faster in China last year so that Rosberg wasn’t caught by Vettel. If the team has a problem with it, they will tell the drivers. What’s that got to do with fans though? Some people seem to expect certain drivers to get out of the way for their favorites or something instead of racing.

      2. But last year Sainz was on new tyres and wanted to pass Max, and Max even got team orders to let Carlos pass, and he completely ignored this. His attitude was “If Carlos is faster, then he should overtake me!”. Carlos subsequently complained and Max was unrepentant. Now we have the case where Carlos didn’t help Max, I still don’t hear an apology from Max about last year.
        Max made decisions during the race that resulted in a lower points scoring position than he might have otherwise obtained. He had the whole of last year to learn this. The team needed him to get as high point scoring points as he can at this end of the season because at the end of the season their Ferrari engine will be the same as it is now, while most of everyone else will be using upgraded ones, so making it more difficult to get high scoring points positions.
        If Max wants to go to another team, then he is going to have a much more disciplined approach to driving in F1, because you don’t hear drivers in other teams saying these things or behaving in this manner, but they would all have the same problems.

        1. Difference is…Carlos never was faster in Singapore, just like in Mellbourne…so you comment is a little…

      3. Not really. It’s the teams fault to allow Sainz in before Verstappen to try the undercut and not to anticipate Verstappen to try to prevent the undercut by coming in the next lap. By staying out he would surely be passed by Sainz and all he could do was to come in (which he told the team) the next lap to prevent this.

        But the worst error was made during the red flag by not switching to mediums. Same mistake Ferrari made with Vettel. Now they had to come in again and lose positions on track. This resulted in missing out on 5th and 6th place. Letting Verstappen pass Sainz would have gained maybe 1 or 2 places at the most.

  5. Oh no, there’s a bit of character that’s different to the rest of the crowd. Quick, we must silence him for having human emotions!!!

    1. Chris Phillips
      20th March 2016, 15:22

      Let him do what he wants, sure but allow others to do what they want and cut down a spoiled brat of a driver.

  6. You dont get the point. Max was in front so he had the first call. After Carlos’ too close call the team wasnt ready for Max during his stop where he lost 5 to 6 seconds that made him rejoin behind Palmer. That hadnt happened if Carlos hadnt stolen the call.

    1. ‘Hadn’t stolen the call’. Sainz did nothing wrong, and he did not sabotage the pitstop. This is a simple thing that happens in racing, you can’t have it all. Deal with it like a man or cry about it like an 18 year old. Verstappen choose the second and I don’t blame his because he is 18 years old.

      1. Sainz just went in calling for a pitstop 50m. before pit-entry. The pitcrew couldn’t just do anything else than give Sainz new tires leaving afterwards Max and the pitcrew with a big problem! Sainz was forcing the undercut!

        1. Just a correction here, he didn’t call the pit 50 meters before the pit, if you’re referring to the team radio like you saw it on tv well it’s a replay, not live! (I mean the team radios)
          After the team radio is done someone reviews it and censor it then a director chooses “some” of the radios to go on air.. So I suspect that radio was like a minute earlier at least!

          1. Not to mention the fact that if you believed Rocco, Toro Rosso put Verstappen’s tyres on Sainz’s car lol. That’s forbidden. They cannot put one driver’s tyres on his teammate’s car. They were expecting Sainz not Verstappen. Tost already confirmed that. On the contrary, they actually weren’t expecting Verstappen when he came in, hence the slow pit stop.

      2. Really, after all he has shown last year, you are going to banter on his age?

        1. Well… when people don’t blame these things on age, they blame on other things. It will probably end up being about his maturity in any case. People still talk about Vettel’s or Hamilton’s maturity on occasion. Nothing special about Verstappen in the end…

        2. I did not banter on his age. He reacted like a 18 year old, and he is a 18 year old. He has an enormous amount of talent but he isn’t half as mature as some like to believe. This especially shows in moments like today.

          1. Agree. Max has a ton of talent but as you say, he’s not as mature as some think. Some people believe this crap because he’s in F1 and “saying the right things.”

            Being in F1, never has or will determine one’s maturity. He’s a kid, like it or not. He also ran into his teamate. Imo, Max’s talent is ready, not sure about his maturity levels. Jury is still out for me.

      3. Sainz maybe didnt do anything wrong, but taken far too long to do anything, from team point of view, they should have swapped the places and give Ves a chance to try, if he didnt do it lets say 2/3 laps, he gets back and eat shit if what he deserves… but not being given a chance, of course he complains… he isnt there to race for 10th, unless his team’s intentions are…

    2. Yup, stolen is probably the right word. I got the feeling Sainz pitted earlier than communicated. This resulted in the frustration and a fumbled up pitstop for Max

      1. You “got the feeling”, you don’t know anything really. This nasty attitude for defending Verstappen is not a good thing for anyone.

    3. No, there are nothing in the rules that say car in front has the first call. It’s only Mercedes team rules between their drivers only. Sainz doesn’t stole anything, and Verstappen is ahead that he can dive into the pit first if he can convince the team that he really need to pit. His reactions afterwards (just entering the pit and caught the team unprepared) is his own fault and the delay on his stop is 100% on him.

    4. Since when is it the front car has to pit first? As far as I know that just happens to be Mercedes team policy, other teams have different policies.

    5. Team was ready for Verstappen´s pitstop. The problem is they decided suddenly to bring medium tyres instead of the softs they prepared. Check again that pitstop and see the mechanics running for them tyres.

  7. Starting to get annoyed with the baby whining from Verstappen, boo hoo let me pass please because I’m faster.

    1. To the Max !
      20th March 2016, 9:58

      …and you put the same reaction last year at Singapore GP about Carlos I assume (he was saying the same thing back then) ?

      1. Yes to be honest, and Ricciardo on Kvyat at Monaco, and then the same in reverse.

        Drivers complaining to the team to have the other driver let them past is pretty sad. Why as a competitor would you ever want to be gifted a place, let alone beg and whine for it like a spoilt child.

        1. I don’t know why but Red Bull have seemed to have set a precedent somewhere along the line that this is acceptable, and it’s really sad, I don’t know why the Mat wants this happening in his team. I’d be embarrassed.

          1. Red Bull wants the drivers to listen to them for this sort of thing whether they allow one of them to pass the other or not or let them race. Now, especially as a fan, I appreciate Vettel’s rebellious attitude in 2013, though by that point Webber had already set a precedent for ignoring the team orders but hadn’t made a successful move. When the team’s controlling them to this extent, it’s really not surprising that we hear them whining over the radio from time to time.

          2. Of course it is acceptable. It is about a team result, not a single driver’s result. So if one driver cannot pass the car in front and let his teammate try this and succeeds it’s better for the team. If he does not succeed, you can always swap back. Red Bull did this last year with Ricciardo and Kvyat in Monaco.

        2. At the Abu Dhabi GP Sainz let Verstappen go by first, and later, after Verstappen flat-spotted his tyres, it was the other way around…what changed all of a sudden ?

          And what about Sainz after the Singapore GP saying he was a team-player and would have followed such a thing but now all a sudden acts deaf ?

          At Red Bull they do such thing to maximize the team result, you do realize WCC end year positions are big money?

          1. Do you have any proof the team even asked Sainz to move today? I don’t think so.

          2. What do you think “push… otherwise we will swap next lap” means ?

          3. Yes, and Sainz did push, because he overtook Palmer. There is no evidence that the team asked Sainz to move over immediately.

          4. It wasn’t showing he was, it showed more he was mostly busy trying to fend off Verstappen.

            Sainz is costing the team a lot of points by thinking he doesn’t have to do anything more as to try and stay ahead of Verstappen…he’s helping out other teams and not his own team… quote of Sainz just recently, “I have to help Toro Rosso reach the top five”…uhm ?

          5. “It wasn’t showing he was, it showed more he was mostly busy trying to fend off Verstappen.

            Sainz is costing the team a lot of points by thinking he doesn’t have to do anything more as to try and stay ahead of Verstappen…he’s helping out other teams and not his own team… quote of Sainz just recently, “I have to help Toro Rosso reach the top five”…uhm ?”

            Sometimes things aren’t as straightforward as you want to believe.

          6. But also Sainz wants the promotion to Red Bull just as much, if not more than Verstappen, because Verstappen still has many years and many options open to him, Sainz is older and if he does not clearly beat Verstappen by a good margin he will be relegated to stay in Torro Rosso just to be replaced by a rookie when Red Bull are ready. Everyone knows what happens to Torro Rosso drivers who don’t get promoted to Red Bull. They are used goods, no one wants them, and they’ll be seen in Formula E soon after.

            Sainz clearly won today of the two drivers, Verstappen got a big “X” against in his performance review for immaturity showing not ready for promotion to Red Bull, and Sainz did absolutely nothing wrong in pitting when he did. It’s the drivers call, and good drivers will make the right call with pitting when they have to.

            There is no way in hell Sainz would or should sacrifice his own personal race, showing that he’s mature, fast enough and can beat Verstappen and is more worthy of promotion just to potentially get the B team perhaps a couple of extra points. Sainz showed great maturity and ability under immense pressure today, and Verstappen could have been just as likely to bin the race on the cars infront as he nearly did in to Sainz himself.

          7. The team screwed up again, just as in Singapore. With the first pit stop Verstappen lost in a few laps a lot of time making him losing the advantage of 6.2 seconds he had on Sainz, and then at the second pit stop they gave Sainz the undercut while Verstappen said he wanted to come in. Verstappen being frustrated came in on his own right away not to end up behind Sainz, but the team wasn’t ready for that.

            Sainz is more interested in staying ahead of Verstappen and wasn’t really pushing Palmer hard enough…and no, costing a team points won’t impress team bosses at all, that’s the opposite of being mature.

          8. I have to add, looking at the lap times of Grosjean, Verstappen should have stayed out because he was still 1 second a lap faster and could have gone for another set of soft tyres. He would not have ended up ahead of the train GRO, HUL and BOT after his second pit stop, but would have been right behind them with faster tyres, which might had given him a change to overtake them.

          9. Yes, Verstappen should have stayed out.

            Reading between lines at Franz Tost’s words after the race, that was his strategy. Carlos’s tyres were toast, he was switched to a suboptimal strategy (putting medium tyres so late, in a track where it’s hard to overtake, putting yourself behind cars that have a more powerful engine). But Verstappen still had the chance to stay on his original strategy.

            Instead, he chose to pit in, caught the team on the wrong foot, lost 7 seconds in the pitstop and went out 3 seconds behind Carlos. They had to give him medium tyres because softs wouldn’t have lasted.

            So this is on Verstappen. He ruined his own race. Carlos’s wasn’t given an undercut against Verstappen in the second stop. Sainz on fresh medium tyres was 2 tenths faster than Verstappen on old soft tyres. It would have taken him 10 laps to make the undercut.

          10. I want to add something. Verstappen was faster than Sainz. This is supported by their lap times.

            But racing is not just about being faster. Is about being smarter, about keeping a cool head and using the best strategy to get the best possible finish. And Max failed this subject today. While Carlos wasn’t much better, he was switched to a worse strategy because he couldn’t make the better one work (he kept wearing his tyres too much). Max switched to a worse strategy while he could still make the better one work, and in the process caused a botched pit stop.

          11. Verstappen finished behind Sainz, therefore his average lap time was slower than Sainz’s. Amongst the reasons for this was Verstappen decided to pit without notifying the team, so they weren’t ready. He was lucky to have had a 7 second pit stop, I would have expected it to have been a lot longer. This was totally unnecessary.
            It was very important for him to have played his cards correctly because STR won’t be upgrading their engines this year, so chances like this will become rarer as the season goes on. To make rash decisions like he did, and then to get angry about the consequences, not only gives him a bad reputation, but means the team got less points than they could have.
            Maybe the team could have got more points if they had asked Sainz to let him pass, but that is a strategic decision those in the control centre have to make, they appear to have believed there was no benefit to the team in doing a swap, and in hindsight that decision was probably correct. There isn’t any proof that if Sainz and he had done a swap that the two cars overtaking Palmer would have happened earlier than it did. We only have Verstappen’s opinion that he could have done better, which is a cheap shot. My recollection is that at one time Verstappen was running ahead of Sainz and very close to the front at one time, so for him to have finished behind Sainz suggests he played his cards badly.

    2. Unfortunately his immatureness, hopefully pure passion, let his frustration get the most from him today but like D Hill said, as much as he is talented, this behaving may work against him. It’s great to see, because I like his aggressively pure-talented and passionate driving, but surely a concern and something to look closely to any prospective team boss.

      1. The leading driver is allowed to call the pit stops. So Max was supposed to come in first. I believe Sainz stole the pit stop or Tost called it (that’s what he says, but I do not believe).
        Sainz stole the pit stop and caused all this drama. That’s why Max was Mad.

        1. If Max was leading that means he chose not to come into the pits that lap as he obviously arrived at the pit lane before Carlos. Max chose to stay out and the pit lane was now free for Carlos, therefore Carlos could not have possibly stolen the pit stop.

  8. All drivers complain and whine, but when broadcasting several messages in a row from Verstappen, they give viewers the impression that only Verstappen is whining and everybody else is happily driving around.

    1. Complaining is one thing and whining like a kid as if you have the right to be infront just because you think you are better is totally another thing. This attitude is just disgusting.

  9. This situation can cost TR champion points as Max could have finished 6th or 7th if Carlos would let gim pass. Max is one of the best overtakers (see Spa last year). That is were his frustration comes from, which I fully agree with.

    However, I expect Max will react a bit more nuanced in a couple of years from now…….

  10. Imagine Ayrton asking Dennis to make Prost move, or other way round… imagine the answer from the other guy too…

    1. I can never imagine Ayrton asking that.

  11. Max should be frustrated about the pit-stop order and the error. He was first he should have pitted first. However it will serve him as a good lesson if Sainz indeed “stole” the pit-stop by simply informing the team and coming him on his own initiative.

    And Max exaggerated on the radio with his complaining. But that is usually the mark of a great driver with a lot of ambition.
    And it added mor entertainment as well :-)

    1. your first comment has some merit , the second is total tosh.

      1. @smudgersmith1 why is it a total nonsense? Because you do not agree?

        1. How is whinging the mark of a great driver ????

          1. @smudgersmith1, it is not a 1-to-1 rule, in the sense that a driver that whinges IS a great driver, but when you look into the latest multiple champions they were ALL, I repeat ALL, accused of whinging at times.
            It will also depends on your definition of whinging, what you consider persistent complaining, but for sure even back to the times of Prost and Senna they complained often about other drivers, including their team mates.

  12. Put a teenager in a car and he will behave like a petulant teenager !

    1. Never a more accurate word posted with respect to the children in F1!!

    2. Remember Hamilton Monaco 2015? And he’s 30…

  13. Every driver whines in the heat of the moment, especially when he is done injustice. So no harm there for me. What matters is how you deal with it afterwards. Keep your head up Max!

    1. I agree. Drivers whine especially if sometimes things don’t workout as planned. Honestly, I’m shocked that people blame Sainz here. He was driving his own race, and made a call to come in when his tyres started falling off quicker than expected. At no point of time in his head was he plotting a devious plan to sabotage Max’s race.

      Toro Rosso are to blame for the shoddy pitstop that Max had. They were not prepared, and they dropped the ball, and that’s what really ruined Max’s race.

      Regarding Max’s maturity, I think he has a long way to go. Drivers always have races where things don’t go according to plan (Seb’s race was an example). But as a driver, you need to keep your cool and try and make the best of a situation. Max whined and drove like a lunatic. I think the boy has a long way to go when it comes to maturity

  14. I already gave my two cents on the same debate in the rate the race article.

    Instead of going at each other’s throats like we usually do. Can we not just give our objective opinions and say that they are even now?

    1. Objective opinions and F1 fanatic don’t mix. I feel like a lot of commenters here would agree with Balestre’s theory; “the best decision, is my decision” :P

      1. That being said, the comments are still the most civilised of all the F1 news sites by a country mile. Which says a lot about F1 fans in general.

        1. Only a shame 18 year old drivers have similarly aged fans…

          1. You must feel terrible Niki Lauda retired long time ago. Nobody to cheer for…

          2. Haha, lovely!

  15. You can see it either way you like, love Max or hate him… but due to Sainz early call Verstapped missed out on 9 points.

    Max was on a realistic course for P5, the way he kept Hamilton behind showed his skills, Sainz on the other hand showed he could not handle Hamilton very well.

    TR lost a lot of potential points due to a bad call and defensive racing of Sainz.

    with team like Mercedes and Ferrari such things don’t happen, last year Hamilton got largely frustrated by a call from Mercedes… but the team held their own on nothing got lost. At TR, and merely cause of Sainz actions, strategy is thrown overboard and the team is loosing grip in a potential best race for the team.

    1. Yes, Sainz made the call, but the team must always confirm the call. I assume that when STR had told Sainz to stay out, he would not have come in. So the team is partly/mostly to blame IMO.

    2. It has nothing to do with Sainz. Team didn’t call in Verstappen but he came in anyway. 3 laps after Sainz. However people act like it’s the complete opposite. Sainz is also not responsible for Verstappen’s strategy.

      1. *1 lap after Sainz.

        1. So you accidentaly quoted Tostpress realease….?

          Tost make a political correct statement for damage controle, we all saw what was happening, we did not need any radio comment or team principle statements…

          Verstappen was ‘best of the rest’ this weekend, showed he can match Hamilton in the race, was on course for a very good result. In the end it’s not the attitude but points that makes man win or loose.

          Verstappen has got what it takes and clearly means business, like Jos said ‘this is not where we came for’.
          Correct or not the team and Sainz prevented Verstappen to score maximum points, Verstappen has an agenda and doesn’t need this screw ups.

  16. ColdFly F1 (@)
    20th March 2016, 11:56

    Somebody saw Jos picking up toys all over Albert Park!

  17. There is a lot of discussion here about the battle between these guys. But no comments on the tyre strategy. That is certainly worth taking a look at.

    Toro Rosso decided to send out both drivers on Soft from the pits after the Red Flag situation. By then it must have been quite clear already that Medium tyres would have gotten them to the end without any other pitstop. Both Carlos and Max had to pit and fell behind slower cars, running on Medium. That should not have happened.

    Ricciardo and Vettel drove faster and managed to stay in front of the slower cars by using an extra SuperSofts stint. That clearly worked for them, but not for our Toro Rosso guys. Max also pitted earlier on his Softs than on his SuperSofts which had been used in Quali. Weird.

    So in my humble opinion, that tyre strategy is what cost them all these points. This is on the strategy team, not on the drivers.

    1. In hindsight, they picked the wrong tires for the restart. I didn’t expect the medium tire to be so fast while being durable, but it was definitely safer to have at least one of them on the medium tire. However, I think the tire management of the Toro Rosso drivers was rather poor. They were outbreaking themselves quite often, which reduces tire life of course. They should have been a bit more gentle in order to be able to do a few more laps on those tires. Sainz was keeping Hamilton at bay until the pitstop – if he had pitted later Hamilton likely wouldn’t even have been 2nd – and after the stop he was stuck in traffic. Verstappen’s laptimes were not very good at that time, but good enough to do a few more laps and wait to see if Sainz would have been able to overtake the slower cars on old tires. Instead he copied Sainz’ poor strategy, and he too was in traffic for the end of the afternoon. Very disappointing to say the least.

  18. Impressed with both Verstappen and Sainz. Good speed, good racing.

    Amused by Verstappen’s complaints though. I tend to think Toro Rosso was right to not order Sainz to step aside and if I’m honest rather surprised Verstappen would insist on it when to my mind, Sainz wasn’t exactly slower. Sure it’s great to see a driver showing emotions rather than a PR-cyborg but that much whining was just funny.

    1. I think Verstappen told Dutch media that Sainz stole his pit stop? So now everyone’s repeating the same thing. But apparently it was not his pit stop and even when he came in he wasn’t called in. So it’s like the complete opposite of what people have been claiming. It’s a bit disturbing how everyone’s repeating this “stole his pit stop” thing though.

  19. A driver can’t steal a pit stop. The team has to have the designated tires ready so the team was clearly ready for Sainz only. STR blamed the driver by stating the facts that ‘the team was not prepared for this stop, as we did not call him.’
    Verstappen may have been quicker within each stint but Sainz was the rightful winner today.

  20. Tyre sets are allocated per-driver. SAI could not take VES tyres by diving suddenly into pits.

    It is clear from Tost words in this same page that TR was fully expecting SAI to pit. But who dived unexpectedly into a pit stop? Yes, VES himself.

  21. I’m not a Max nay sayer, but I’m not impressed by his attitude today. Although, it was entertaining.

    TR didn’t handle the restart very well. They couldn’t maintain their pace for what ever reason and made the wrong calls, losing out on what should have been a good points scalp.

    Sainz was excellent today. I’m glad he didn’t let Max by. He didn’t really put a foot wrong.

    It was a frustrating day all around for TR, but it was only Max that boiled over. Their best chance of good points scoring will be the first four races, or so. Once the other midfield teams start to fit new bits to their engines, as well as chassis development, you’d have to say that TR might struggle to keep up with their 2015 spec engine.

    TR need to make hay whilst the sun shines. They shouldn’t be too disappointed, but today must feel like a missed opportunity.

  22. I agree with eveyone that this was a rather questionable and perhaps embarrassing performance from Max. Him being incredibly frustrated and feeling cheated I can understand, but next time I hope he puts his head down and keeps it to himself.

    What I don’t understand however, is how many here say Sainz did a great job. Excuse me? Toro Rosso had the 3rd best car this weekend, anything other than 4th and 5th is a bad job (with Kimi retiring). As far as I am concerned, Verstappen lost his cool (with or without a good reason) and ruined his race, making it probably the worst race we’ve seen from him, but Sainz did not have any bad luck other than a bad strategy from the team and therefore this is a poor result by any standard. The fact that people consider this a good race for him is probably telling about the expectations people have of him.

    1. I agree. Verstappen should have trusted his team (question is why he doesn’t trust them ?), but I’m sure he will learn that he has to do that more from now on (with the radio clamp down).

      Sainz however was burning up his tyres like crazy (having to go in twice too soon), but seemed again, just like at Monza last year driving behind Button, not knowing how to exploit the weaknesses of the car in front and use his own car’s strengths to be able to overtake the slower car quickly enough.

  23. Max,
    We need more of you!
    The one Factor that makes me keep watching this Formula.
    (Nothing against Sainz but if he is the team player he says he should switch to LMP Racing, the team lost points today and it was not Max fault)

    1. You should go watch some tv show and then cry on Tumblr if they don’t give you the endgame you are shipping for or threaten to boycott the show if they kill off your favorite character. That sounds more like your speed.
      Sigh. I thought we were watching F1, I don’t need this crap from F1 fans…

  24. Apex Assassin
    20th March 2016, 18:22

    What a whinging little primadona. Talented yes, mature no. Max would have been better served spending a few years in other categories learning humility and gaining maturity.

    If Max was faster then why couldn’t he make the pass? Seriously, why didn’t he succeed in passing Sainz?

    #ShutUpAndDrive

  25. Common guys…..don’t shoot Max, he wants to win and was one of the best new youngster last year and with the right attitude. A winning mentality.
    Lets see in a race or 10, I think the most people are talking then about how good he is. Do you think Shumacher was an angel……look at his battle’s with Damon Hill. And what about Hamilton? He’s is a nice guy on the track….don’t think so.
    I real champion needs to be angry and complaining now and then.

  26. By taking the first pit stop Sainz got an advantage, because he could drive on new tires while Max has to stay on the old ones. That costed Max seconds.
    Max was supposed to pit first, because he was the leader.
    So Max was right to be angry.
    If Sainz “stole” the pit stop from Max it is even worse.

  27. I think that the biggest problem was the weather in Free Practice, nobody really knew how the Medium tire was going to work. Mercedes was spot on to put Rosberg on the Mediums during the red flag. Torro Rosso (and Ferrari) didn’t and that was the mistake. Good for Saenz not to let Max by. Bad from Max to complain so much, very unprofessional. Very bad from Torro Rosso to miss such a chance to finish higher. My favorite driver (Max) and favorite team (TR) let me down…
    Grosjean, (lucky and) awesome!!!

    1. Not good for Sainz. But that is on the team, not Sainz. To get a better team result it is better to let a team mate pass if you cannot pass the car in front, to let the team mate try. If he succeeds it is better for the team and if not you can always swap back.

  28. Verstappen was faster today, but the team made the right decision to let its drivers race. Period.

    It’s Max’s right to be frustrated with himself and/or Sainz, it’s his right to complain, it’s his right to turn the team radio red but the sheer fact is that he got the green light to overtake and he just couldn’t get past his team mate for one reason or another. Welcome to motorsport. It’s not always the fastest driver who finishes ahead.

    The rest of the story is just Verstappen’s being a kid who is constantly being told he’s a future superstar by everyone around him. His talent got to his head and he thinks he’s entitled to things he’s actually not entitled to and/or earned yet. He’ll grow out of this attitude.

  29. Doesn’t anyone here realises that the radio traffic we hear during the race is delayed, pre filtered and selected?
    Who knows Sainz had whined about his tires too? Was he told to pit by the team earlier? We simply don’t know.

    All this was a team failure above all.

  30. Flying Fiddlers
    23rd March 2016, 17:17

    Dear Max, if you were faster then you would have been in front of him. Stop complaining….the sort is racing….not let me past because I say so!!!!

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