13/07/2019
NEWS STORY
Having complained of turbo lag over the course of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Max Verstappen believes the same issue has been affecting him throughout the Silverstone weekend and ultimately compromised his qualifying.
Out-paced by teammate Pierre Gasly in all three practice sessions, when it really mattered Verstappen was able to pull out all the stops, claiming fourth on the grid, just 0.183s off pole-man Valtteri Bottas' time, and finishing ahead of Gasly and Sebastian Vettel.
However, the Dutchman believes the turbo issue cost him a potential shot at pole.
"I honestly didn't know what to expect in qualifying," her told reporters. "Friday and this morning was not good. I was lacking stability and we managed to find the stability from the car and it was alright.
"I kept having turbo lag coming out of the low-speed corners," he continued, "I had an issue with the power I wanted, it didn't pick up the throttle like I wanted.
"We definitely lost a bit of lap time with that," he said. "But still to be that close to pole is good. It's just a shame because we lost a bit of time, otherwise I think we could have fought for pole."
Asked to explain the issue, he said: "It's where the boost is kicking in. So all the time when you go on the power, some of the corners are low RPM, there's just a lag. You go on the throttle and nothing is happening and then you feel it kicking in. You lose performance, especially here. After the corners here, there are long straights so you continuously lose.
"It's a completely different power unit, so there are a lot of benefits but some things are just a bit different so it's just a bit more fine-tuning but we normally get it right and you turn it around."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Silverstone, here.