Formula 1: 3 Max Verstappen ‘weaknesses’ that can be exploited
By Asher Fair
Max Verstappen small weaknesses: No. 3 – Street courses
Sergio Perez’s second street course win of the season has prompted some to call him the “king of the streets”, and it’s a fair title for a driver whose five wins since joining Red Bull in 2021 have all come on city streets.
Max Verstappen hasn’t been nearly as dominant in street course races as he has in road course races. While he has won 10 of the last 11 road course races going back to last year, including eight in a row at one point, he has only won one of the last four street course races, with Perez winning the other three.
However, this is just another “weakness” that is more of a “non-strength” than anything.
Verstappen still won more street course races than Perez did last year (three to two), and despite the fact that Perez has one more street course victory this year (two to one), Verstappen has actually scored more points in street course races (62 to 61), excluding the Baku sprint.
Factoring in the sprint, Perez has a one-point advantage (69 to 68), but there are no more street course sprints on this year’s schedule. There are five more on road courses, however.
Speaking to Beyond the Flag before the season began, Verstappen confessed that he is always looking for ways to improve, even following a season which saw him break the all-time single-season wins record.
“I know that sometimes it can be hard to replicate the season, but I think it’s the same as with the car, right? You always try to improve it, and I always look at the little details,” Verstappen stated.
One of his mottos is “always keep pushing to improve”.
“Even when you have had a good race, there are always things that you could’ve done better,” he said. “And then of course you also learn from the bad races. By always trying to look for these little improvements and general experience you gain year after year, you try to do better. But of course it also depends a lot on the package you have around you.”
Next. All-time Formula 1 wins list. dark
He certainly has a number of key areas in which he can improve moving forward, which, in some way, could be scary for everybody else, considering the elite level at which he has been performing as it is. The fact that a second place effort is treated as a bad race is evidence of that.