Photo: Race Pictures

Villeneuve shoots down popular Verstappen narrative: 'Actually, no'

13:34, 21 Dec

Updated: 13:37, 21 Dec

byTobia Elia

Jacques Villeneuve has shared his view on why Red Bull tends to place its full trust in Max Verstappen.

“If you’re incapable of driving it, or figuring out what the issue is during the season, you’ll end up going slower and slower”

- Jacques Villeneuve

The Canadian believes it is not the second drivers — such as Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda this year — who suddenly become slower, but rather Max Verstappen who continues to refine the set-up and his ability to extract performance from the car, making him progressively faster.

“Everybody’s been saying, ‘Oh, but the car is made for Max — poor, poor second driver.’ Actually, no. Max is working on it, making the car better and better,” he told High Performance Podcast.

“If you’re incapable of driving it, or figuring out what the issue is during the season, you’ll end up going slower and slower — not because you’re actually slower, but because Max will go faster and faster. That’s because you’re incapable of truly understanding what’s going on with the car.”

Photo: RacePictures

Villeneuve then pointed to the case of Sergio Perez, who was also soundly beaten in his head-to-head with Max Verstappen — especially as the season wore on.

“Obviously they’ll work with Max, and obviously the car will become undriveable for you. We saw it with Perez every year. They would start the season on par, and that was it. Perez didn’t start going slower — Max started going faster and faster because he could actually comprehend what was happening with the car.

“You have to figure out how to get into that perfect window — where you drive the car, where the car becomes an extension of your body, and you don’t have to think about it anymore.”

Villeneuve names the rare skill that both Verstappen and Sainz share

The two were team-mates during their rookie Formula 1 season at Toro Rosso in 2015, with the Spaniard more than holding his own against the Dutchman — even though it was Verstappen who was ultimately chosen to make the step up to Red Bull Racing the following year.

Sainz’s career has since taken him through several team changes, including spells with Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, and now Williams, with the aim of helping guide the team back towards the sharp end of the grid.

According to Villeneuve, however, the two share a rare trait.

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