Max Verstappen “had to commit a lot” after bold setup choice to take surprise pole

Max Verstappen conceded it wasn’t “easy” to extract the maximum from his Red Bull after securing a surprise pole position for the British Grand Prix.

Verstappen beat the two McLarens to clinch his fourth pole of the year.

Red Bull opted for an aggressive low-downforce setup, which made Verstappen lightning quick on the straights.

However, it made it trickier in the corners, especially given the windy conditions.

Reflecting on qualifying, Verstappen said he had to show a lot of commitment at high speeds to put the lap together.

“Pretty good, I mean it was not easy out there also to just produce a consistent lap time just because of the wind, the gusts and all that you got out there,” Verstappen said.

“The car was moving around a lot, even just on straights. So, sometimes a bit unpredictable in places because of it, but luckily that last lap came together quite nicely.

“Yeah, just had to commit a lot on the high speed with the low downforce that we have on the car, which we just tried to build up on. And yeah, luckily in Q3 that worked out.”

Verstappen revealed that the car balance in his Red Bull went from understeer to oversteer, which played into his hands.

“Everywhere except the last sector, so every single corner a little bit. Yeah, my first lap, I don’t know, it just felt really different to Q2,” he added.

“Just more oversteer, more understeer in places. And yeah, that definitely made the lap, I’d say not amazing, but I never thought of course that I could find whatever it was that was more intense I think. So yeah, it worked, so I’m happy with that.

“In some places, yeah, quite different. I mean yesterday it was just understeering a lot, but at the same time also having oversteering in places, so it was very difficult to balance. And I think today we definitely improved the understeer and that just allowed me to push a bit more. Because I mean understeer is slow, especially in F1, so we just needed to try and minimize that.”

Verstappen wary of Red Bull’s tyre wear

Despite storming to pole, Max Verstappen is aware that Red Bull’s struggles with tyre management could impact his chances of taking the race win.

“I mean, yeah, just go in there and try to do the best we can. Naturally, normally in the race runs we struggle a bit more on just tyre life. And I don’t know how that will be tomorrow,” he explained.

“I think we have to wait and see. That’s also how the weather will be in general, if there is some rain or not. The straight line speed is nice I think to have, but you still need to manage the tyres around here.

“It’s very tough with all these high speed corners. But I’m just looking forward to it. I mean, I’m not really in a battle, so I’m just trying to have fun and try to get the best possible result.”