05/06/2018
NEWS STORY
At a time Auto Motor und Sport suggests that without his numerous 'mistakes', Max Verstappen would be third in the driver standings, Red Bull's design guru Adrian Newey is confident the Dutch youngster will learn from his mistakes.
And so many mistakes...
In Melbourne he spun while pursuing Kevin Magnussen, spinning again in qualifying in Bahrain and subsequently hitting Lewis Hamilton during the race, leading to the Briton calling him a "dickhead". In China he collided with Sebastian Vettel, while in Azerbaijan he not only crashed in practice, he subsequently collided with his teammate in the race, an incident that eliminated both cars.
Though he made it to the podium in Barcelona, the weekend was not without incident, the Dutchman incurring front wing damage following an early clash with Lance Stroll.
And then came FP3 in Monaco...
Auto Motor und Sport suggests that without those mistakes, other than Verstappen being third in the standings with 90 points, Sebastian Vettel would be top on 107 and Lewis Hamilton second with 95. Poor old Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, would be trailing in fifth, with just 73 points.
Indeed, the German publication suggests the youngster's various errors have cost him 55 points.
Red Bull design guru, Adrian Newey, who has worked with some of the sport's best drivers over the years, is convinced that Verstappen will learn from his mistakes.
"We're all human," he told Reuters. "He can try and shrug off everybody else's comments and opinions but when you've had a run like that, you question yourself a bit. Of course you do.
"But I think he's tough enough that he'll come through that," he added. "He's had one of those bad runs.
"He's a great driver, he's very quick and at some point he'll shed that (poor sequence) again and be on his way. Part of being a racing driver is learning from your mistakes and I think he's bright enough to do that."