'Downbeat' Max Verstappen 'not even feisty' in races anymore claims former F1 champion

Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve recently claimed that Max Verstappen appeared very downbeat and was not feisty anymore. The remarks follow a horrible race in Baku for the Red Bull driver, where the reigning champion was overshadowed by teammate Sergio Perez in terms of performance.

Before Perez's late-race collision with Carlos Sainz, he was fighting for the podium, and there had been moments where he had even battled for the lead. Verstappen, however, was nowhere compared to his teammate. He struggled with tire wear and then later in the race was overtaken by both George Russell and Lando Norris.

Verstappen ended the race in P5 after a double DNF for Perez and Sainz meant that he climbed two places. His race, however, was quite average, and former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve raised alarms about the Red Bull driver's mindset, stating that he was not as feisty anymore. He was quoted as saying on Sky Sports:

"Max, for the last few races, sounds very downbeat, like he's not even feisty in the race. He doesn't fight that hard. Even on the radio we barely hear him, so something has changed."

He added:

"It's as if he knows he hasn't won [for a while], he knows it [the car] is not driving like he wants. Now his team-mate was a lot quicker than him. That's a very strange situation."

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Max Verstappen looks back at his race in Baku

Talking to the media afterward, Max Verstappen revealed that he had gone in a slightly different setup direction compared to teammate Sergio Perez and that cost him in the race.

Unlike his teammate, the Dutch driver struggled massively with tire wear issues as well as generating performance from the car. He said (via Sky Sports):

"It was quite a difficult race. After qualifying I don't think the final change was the right one. We paid the price for that. It was as simple as that because if you look at Checo he had a much better race. It seemed like he was more comfortable. From our side, we tried something else and it didn't work out. You win and lose as a team."

Verstappen added:

"Of course, I'm not happy with the performance. Sometimes you make some final changes before qualifying and it works, unfortunately this time it didn't."

Max Verstappen did however manage to keep a lid on the number of points he lost to Lando Norris. The McLaren driver was also doing a damage-limitation exercise and could only muster a P4 after starting the race in P17.