Verstappen makes no excuses after crash

2016 Monaco Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen has offered no excuse following his race-ending crash at Massenet that put an end to a forgettable weekend at Monaco for the Red Bull driver.

The 18-year-old had started from the back of the field after crashing out of qualifying, and was running in tenth before locking up his brakes and crashing into the outside wall at Massenet.

“It was a shame,” said Verstappen. “Before that, the pace was really good. It was comfortable. But then it was tricky conditions and I locked up a bit and from there I was basically a passenger.

“You have one dry line. I came off the dry line a bit and came onto the dirty and wet bit and hit the wall.”

The retirement capped off a torrid weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix winner who collided with the barriers on three occasions over the course of the weekend.

“This year I think it was very difficult in general with the conditions. But that’s not an excuse. Hopefully next time will be better.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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61 comments on “Verstappen makes no excuses after crash”

  1. Ah come on, he owns up to his mistakes in that quote.

    Unfair tabloid-headline.

    1. That’s what no excuses means – he takes the blame.
      I think something might have been lost in translation. @hanswes

      1. @glynh Indeed :)

      2. Well, he did made direct excuses to the team to Dutch media… And besides that, making excuses to the team doesn’t necessarily have to be made in public.

        1. O wow, really a language problem going on here, my apology for mixing excuses with apologies. So forget my previous comment…

    2. Same as below: that’s what ‘makes no excuses’ means, i.e. he took responsibility.

      His actual excuse is being a teenager still, of course. He was driving well, including a great pass on Button (I think) but just hasn’t the experience yet to do with everything F1 can throw up.

    3. “Disappointed in myself and disappointed for the team, because they worked very hard to get the car ready and I didn’t give them the result they deserved today,” Verstappen said”

      This is what he told the press….

    4. @hanswes Hi Hans.

      I’m referring to the fact that Verstappen admitted that the bad conditions were not an excuse for him to make a mistake. He was accepting full responsibility for the accident – which is quite a big thing for any racing driver to do, let alone one such as young as Max.

      I hope you understand my reasoning now.

      1. @willwood Yep, my bad.

    5. What excuses can he make?? “a bee flew in the cockpit”

  2. Verstappen makes no excuses after crash

    “This year I think it was very difficult in general with the conditions. But that’s not an excuse. Hopefully next time will be better.”

    Sorry F1 Fanatic. That is not really fair to have such a click bait header to this topic.
    I think Verstappen has been very open honest about his own mistakes and has been quite apologetic to his team in other reports.

    1. Isn’t that what “makes no excuses” means?

      He’s not trying to blame anyone but himself for the crash… He isn’t “excusing” his actions.

    2. That’s what no excuses means. It means no excuses but admitting fault.

      1. A clear case of Dunglish. In Dutch “making your excuses” means appologizing… Quite the opposite of the English ;)

        1. Dunglish?? lol

          1. Hans (@hanswesterbeek)
            30th May 2016, 7:12

            Indeed. The Dutch word for “apology” is “excuus”. Hence it’s easy to misread “makes no excuses” as “does not apologise”. Lessons learned ;-)

  3. Very expensive weekend for Max. When he was making all these “fastest laps” I though maybe he is going too far to the max on wet conditions. And he did.
    Had not even broken a front wing since last year Monaco. Made up for that in one weekend.
    Together with a very grumpy Daniel: a week to forget for RBR.

    1. Strictly speaking, that isn’t correct – you forgot about his accident in the 2015 British GP when he spun off at Turn 2 and ended up clipping the barriers with his front wing.

  4. @Oople The headline suggests that VES himself refuses to make excuses to his team for his personal mistakes in this weekend. That’s just patently absurd.

    1. ‘No excuses’ is a common English phrase used in this situation when someone is being contrite.

      1. @john-h I learned something today :)

        1. Ah sorry. I seem to have repeated some of the above comments. No need for you to get hounded like this!

    2. maarten.f1 (@)
      29th May 2016, 20:12

      @hanswes, what you are confused with is “apologies”. “Excuses maken aan iemand” is basically “to apologize to someone”, “een excuus zoeken voor je fout” is basically “to make an excuse for your mistake”.

  5. Sergey Martyn
    29th May 2016, 20:00

    Was the swap necessary? Kvyat crashed. Verstappen crashed.
    Ricciardo has been screwed the second time in a row and lost another desreved win.

    Oh, think twice
    Just another day in Dr. Marko paradise!

    1. Kvyat did not crash, he did one of his stupid attacks … again. The same reason why he was replaced.

      1. and.. Kvyat was awarded a three-place grid penalty as well as two penalty points on his license for avoidable contact with Kevin Magnussen

  6. So many of you guys suggested this would happen. And well it did. Two years in a row, Max cannot keep it on the straight and narrow.

    3 crashes in one weekend? But I guess there are 0 points for being safe in 11th place.

  7. maarten.f1 (@)
    29th May 2016, 20:19

    Perhaps narrow street circuits is his weak point, and if so, he’ll need to work on it. You can drive 77 faultless laps, but one single mistake can ruin your day there. But it’s not like he’s the only one that crashed into the barriers at Monaco. It’s just a big deal because they swapped him with Kvyat I guess.

    1. @maarten-f1
      He had no problem fighting through the pack in last years Singapore GP. I think it’s more that he felt he needed to make up for yesterday’s mistake.
      But yeah, people will definitely put this down to ‘the swap’ and say it was too early. Just like they were yelling he was too young last year after colliding with Grosjean.
      That will die down after a string of good results. Also just like last year.

    2. It looks as if changing conditions (improving track, different temperatures, etc) are his weakness. If the conditions are constant, he is capable of stringing good laps together, but if something unexpectedly changes, he turns in too early or brakes too late.
      Last year he was actually quite good all weekend. He only crashed because he was completely out of position after a botched pitstop.

      1. Forgot about USA 2015??

    3. Such races need higher concentration and discipline. It’s probably harder for a teenager full of adrenaline to stay like that. He will get better with experience and age at things like Monaco.

  8. He won 2 weeks ago in a very impressive way and he was on a high, still at the age of 18.

    This weekend he made a mess of it and accepts the low.
    Still I enjoyed his racing skills again sliding and slipping through the field.
    He is a racer, he hates processsions and that’s what I like about him.
    Just go for it, don’t settle for a mediocre performance.
    So when he was in 10th position he pushed for more and crashed.
    Of course he is to blame for that, he acknowledged and he made apologies to the team.
    But I hope he does not alter his racing attitude, because we have too many procession drivers in the pack.

    1. It was a gift, and also in the qualifying the gap was tremendous between cars, usually with the time he qualified he wouldnt have been 4 in the grid, he would have been 8 or 9 and with that is impossible even to do a podium. So yeah, the luckiest win in long time, but people praise it like if he outclassed everybody like Vettel when he won in Toro Rosso.

      1. For every win you need luck!
        Hamilton won because:
        1. Rosberg let him pass
        2. Ricciardo had a bad pitstop
        3. Ricciardo ruined his tires
        4. His ultra softs lasted a “miraculous” 50 rounds

        But you can also say he won because:
        1. his teammate helped him
        2. he made a great call for 1-stop
        3. he managed his tires perfectly
        4. he outpaced Ricciardo on worse tires

        1. He won because:
          1. his teammate let him past
          2. his teammate opened a 26 second gap from 3rd and the rest
          3. he lucked out on a number of VSCs, weather and changing conditions
          4. RBR screwed Daniel in the pits

          And because Lewis did a great job, but a great job still won’t move you up a position in Monaco. RIC never had a chance after he got stuck in the draft of Lewis Hamilton and Lewis was in the operating range of his tires. The lower noses make the following distances in F1 a real shame and overtaking even harder then before 2015.

          1. That’s why you have to be first. I think Hamilton made an excellent call by going for 1-stop. Daniel was held up but still a great daring move to put Daniel under pressure.
            I think Hamilton deserved to win. He was great, like Max was last race under difficult circumstances.

            I think Daniel has to take critical ook at himself. He couldn’t get closer to Hamilton on newer tires. His attacks were weak. He even ruined his tires by locking up.
            Hamilton didn’t do that.
            Same in Barcelona. Daniel has to manage his tires much better. It cost him his chances to attack Hamilton.

        2. No, Hamilton won because he showed the skills necessary to be a World Champion. Sure, Ricciardo’s unexpectedly long pit stop was a gift, but Hamilton had to be in the right place to take advantage of that. My recollection is he only got to be front by a very small margin, but that is all you need to give a World Champion.

          1. Any unbiased fan knows it was RICs race and he lost only because of his teams mistake.
            Hamilton did not drive a flawless race and in fact overshot a chicane under pressure from RIC and was almost passed.
            If Renault has indeed a improved engine ready for Canada RIC may will be a contender for the WDC this year.
            If HAM and ROS think they feel pressure competing against each other now….how much more under the gun they will experience with an aggressive RIC on their a$$.
            This may turn into a very interesting season.

      2. It was his first race in the Redbull car in Barcelona and he won at the age of 18.
        If you don’t think that this is special and call that a gift, you probably don’t enjoy racing at all…
        Everybody with some clue on what’s racing is all about praised him for that and rightly so.

      3. That’s a very negative way of looking at it. He showed his potential all weekend (maybe except for Q3) and he was fast in the race, so he was there to benefit from the Mercedes and Ferrari mishaps. He then managed to keep a faster Räikkönen behind for 30 laps. Not a bad performance for an 18-year-old in his first race for the team.

        When Vettel won the Toro Rosso was actually quite a good car and he was helped by the fact that the quick guys had all messed up in qualifying. He drove exceptionally well, but it was a completely different kind of race.

  9. Except the praise is warranted if the driver goes on to win 4 WDC’s.

  10. Give to much to soon!!

  11. We could see the pure speed of Max again today. He was faster then Daniel. Sadly he took too many risks and crashed.
    But on a dry road he will make Daniel sweat.
    Daniel seems to ruin his tires pretty quick it seems. He couldn’t follow Hammy even though he had older tires.

    1. It’s pretty easy to ruin your tyres when you’re pushing lap after lap in the slip stream of another car with all the turbulent air trying to give yourself an opportunity to pass.

      If RedBull hadn’t botched the stop, Ricciardo would have run away with the win – if Lewis had caught him, it’s unlikely his Ultrasofts would have lasted to the end, and he would have had to pit again so Perez may have ended up second, with Vettel 3rd.

      1. if.. it’s formula 1.. No if’s there.
        ( maybe if written as FI ;)
        You have to be on the right place at the right time.. If not… the only if allowed in F1.

    2. We could also see the skill of Max this weekend with those crashes… But to your points. He was faster on the inters with a car specifically set up for the wet, his pace when it dried wasn’t so good. Faster in the dry than Danny though, in the 2 dry qualy sessions so far he was down by 4 tents when it mattered and crashed on his first flying lap in Monaco, hardly anything to make you sweat. As for Daniel ruining his tires quickly, his tires were older than Hamiltons and its Monaco, track position is everything in Monaco just look at a Mclaren holding up a Mercedes for most of the race. Max is a very good driver and will only get better but at the moment Daniel is the better driver and will also get better. I don’t like the bashing of either drivers saying either is overrated, let’s just enjoy the battle between them for the rest of the season and seasons to come…

      1. Max was impatient it seems. It was only half way the race, 9 sec behind Alonso, so he had plenty of time left to move up, but he couldn’t control himself (this time).

        1. I believe Max is an exceptional driver as well, but no, he wasn’t faster than Daniel this weekend.

  12. I’m just gutted

    1. @verstappen Cheer up! Just win the next race :P

  13. Max Verstappencrash doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes. So much for the Wunderkid. And no comment from Darth Helmut about his prodigy either?

  14. Crashed 3 times over a race weekend… has anyone done that before?

    1. Maldonado sure, i bet all my money on that jajaja.

      1. I think it was Maldonado after his Spanish GP win. I at least remember Maldonado binning it in quali and the race, not entirely sure if he made contact with one of the other drivers during an FP session

        1. @todfod Maldonado indeed crashed into Perez in FP 3 at Monaco 2012.

      2. Yeah and watching all this has made Maldonado so nostalgic that he wants to come back.

  15. Max is 2 for 2 in Monaco.

  16. With great power comes great responsibility Max !

  17. It’s a shame, Kvyat probably would have had 3rd place in the bag, and 2nd last race. Based on what I have seen the last two years I would put Max behind Sainz, behind Kvyat and then on top I would have RIC. RBR are so sure of their investment, but to be honest, he doesn’t have the speed over his teammates, and he should have done a couple years in GP2/… RIC will make Max look second rate as the season goes along. RBR done’ screwed up, maybe Monaco was a bit of #Karma coming back at RBR for pushing a product vs the right decision. The sad thing is, in order for RBR to protect their ‘investment’ RIC is gonna have to suffer, which will make that team even slower. RBR are probably done for the rest of the season. Their best chance of the year, given the fuel light nature of the track, and it went down like Kvyat’s trade back to TR.

    1. ”RIC will make Max look second rate as the season goes along”

      If making someone look like second rate means you almost always get owned by your team mate, Daniel is doing a great job indeed. Based on your logic, Kvyat is destroying Hamilton at the moment, right?

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