“I didn’t win there, but I learned a lot”: Max Verstappen singles out one F1 race that turned things around for the Red Bull driver

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has pointed out that the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP earlier this year has been his highlight of the season despite not winning the race.

The Dutch driver has dominated the 2023 season, winning 10 out of 12 races thus far, with the race in Baku being one of them that he lost to his teammate Sergio Perez. Despite starting from just one place below Perez in the race, Verstappen was not able to challenge his Mexican teammate at all in the streets of Baku.

Max Verstappen stated that his loss in Baku played a huge role for him this season.

“Baku — I didn’t win there, but I learned a lot, with the way I want my setups, from there on it has only been getting better and better. I could’ve picked Hungary, where I am 30 seconds ahead, but those are the ‘perfect’ weekends, but you learn more on the weekends where it doesn’t go smoothly,” he told ViaPlay.

While appearing on the Sky Sports podcast, Karun Chandhok also agreed and added:

"At the start of the year, I go back to the drive he put in, in Jeddah, but more importantly in Baku. David Croft [Sky Sports' lead commentator] and I were in the commentary box there saying he would have overtaken Max, let alone through the strategy, he would have overtaken Max on track and won that race. It was a proper convincing performance, admittedly at one of his strongest circuits on the calendar."

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Karun Chandhok on how Max Verstappen has broken Sergio Perez

Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok stated that Max Verstappen broke Sergio Perez this season after he passed the Mexican driver on track in Miami despite starting way behind him.

"Ever since he got overtaken on Lap 48 in Miami – it's just gone away from him. I look at what happened even at the weekend at Spa. Max got ahead of him and he put 22 seconds on him in 27 laps. That’s a big chunk of performance to put around a track where they are spending a lot of time at full throttle driving around in a straight line, essentially," he explained.

"To me, that is the cause of concern, the only cause of concern, in the Red Bull camp. Is this the fourth teammate [after Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon] that Max has potentially broken? Who can they have alongside him? Chandhok added.

It will be interesting to see if Sergio Perez can challenge Max Verstappen much closer In the second half of the season.