"I've spammed it like 50 times" - Max Verstappen talks about his struggles to get his DRS working at the 2022 F1 Spanish GP

After struggling with DRS issues for the majority of the Spanish Grand Prix, reigning world champion Max Verstappen managed to secure his third race win of the 2022 season. The Dutchman, who struggled to get past George Russell's Mercedes despite a significant pace advantage, admitted that he "spammed" the DRS button several times to get it to work.

In the post-race press conference, Verstappen shared his frustrations with the DRS and explained what went wrong, saying:

“There was not… I mean, I could have shouted back on the radio something, but there is nothing you can do because I mean, I’m not stupid, once you get the light and the activation beep, then you press the paddle. If it doesn’t open, there’s clearly an issue. I’ve spammed it like 50 times at one point on the straight and it’s just not opening, so there was clearly an issue. I mean, I tried all different kinds of things, stay off the kerb, on the kerb, open it a tiny bit later but it was just broken – or like malfunctioning. So yeah, we clearly have an issue there on this wing.”

Red Bull clearly has some work to do in the reliability department. The Spanish GP, however, turned out to be the perfect race weekend for the team, who took the lead in the championship standings, ahead of Ferrari. Max Verstappen, too, came out on top of Charles Leclerc in the drivers' standings.

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"It's a bit weird" - Max Verstappen on reliability of 2022 cars

Max Verstappen did not think Charles Leclerc's retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix was car-related. He also admitted that Red Bull's reliability has not been as strong this season as in previous years.

Commenting on Leclerc's DNF and speaking about whether or not this is a result of the new 2022 regulations, the Dutchman said:

“It shouldn’t be really car-related because like the engines and stuff are pretty much the same. Of course, the fuel has changed a little bit, but it’s a bit weird. Yeah, also from our side, of course, we had already two retirements where before we were always really strong on reliability, so it’s a bit difficult to tell. It’s also not major issues that we had. I don’t know, of course, about Ferrari, but from our side it’s little things and yeah, we are trying to be on top of that, but I don’t think it’s specifically car-related.”

While Charles Leclerc had his first DNF of the season yesterday, Max Verstappen has suffered two so far, which has kept the title fight exciting.