CarNext presents: Keeping Up with the Verstappens, ft. David Coulthard – The Day After in Abu Dhabi

gentlemen [Applause] this is now all yours i wish it was wow i didn't even realize how the hotel looked like so it's actually very nice to be here so you've been very focused on the weekend that's why yeah so this is the morning after the night before oh yeah i can i can sense that understandably it was a long night it was this is crazy night a crazy night i'm glad to hear that because this has been a long journey this is a journey that started i suppose the moment you had 20 years 20 years ago yeah 20 years ago you you first had the vision to oh max had the vision or you had the vision to put him in a cart i mean at that time i mean it was only a motorsport where it was talked about at the table and of course he was interesting to you know he knew everything and watching formula one even watching you drive i don't understand but i'm glad you don't do anything that i used to do but that's how it started you know when he was four four and a half i think i for sure i have somewhere still have pictures when he did first laps and yeah still can't remember it and then finish it off like this it's unbelievable for me so proud moment it was really good do you feel that you get more out of this than you did of your own success in racing because it's your flesh and blood i didn't have that success it was difficult to compare but seeing your son doing this it's so emotional it's so crazy and do you feel any sense of what your mother and father go through in this situation because you're in control you you know the decisions you're making but when you send it down the inside you might be going please slow down please make the corner but you know whether you're under control or not yeah i mean normally i'm not nervous at all for any race but yesterday i was and i know that well my mom is always nervous it doesn't matter if i'm doing i think a qualifying or a race so she always has to go to the toilet many times during the race but everyone was tensed and everyone was just you know looking forward to to the race and then um you know the race itself was not really looking great we didn't really have the pace but then of course everything just went upside down in the last lap and uh yeah that last step for me also you know you you see me doing the move and everything but like i said i had this cramp so all the time when i was going full throttle i i basically almost couldn't go full throttle because my leg was like it was really really painful so i had to also deal with that in the last lap so yeah everything just came together also that you know you're just very tense so your muscle muscles just cramp up and yeah it was very uh tough you know it's interesting as a commentator watching it when you went for it in turn five before the entry there was a side of me and this confirms where i was deficient as a racing driver versus how you are as a racing driver you see a gap you go i thought it was too early to do it before turn five i thought better was exit where was your mind on that same say why there because then you have two straights after that yeah so i was i was thinking he's lining up to pass them at the end of the straight but then it happened there so i think a lot of people were surprised everyone thought you'd gone too early but i knew i had better top speed so i was like as soon as i'm ahead then i can control the defense you know because when you're behind you can always close close the door and then you know you have you're not fully in control so i was like i need to send it there and then i am in control i think also he didn't expect that no none of his experience that's why i think it's he did it at that spot yeah it was absolutely brilliant and it clearly changed the outcome of this race and the world championship so we're going to have a fuller conversation inside but it was just about capturing some of your thoughts uh on the reflection now because you now have achieved the ultimate goal in motor racing there is nothing more than being a world champion yes you can win two three four five but it doesn't take away from what is arguably the greatest ever fight for a championship the sense of pride you must have to have been part of that journey i mean the whole year you know what would all happen during during the season the bad luck he has and then coming down to the last race uh in the season even the last lap you know you cannot imagine you know you cannot make a movie and the outcome like that no it's insane if you took that as a script to hollywood and said i've got a great idea for um for a racing movie they would look and laugh they would say this could never happen it did yeah nice i mean uh it's of course amazing how everything turned out but if i had to do it again i'm not sure i would choose for that kind of uh it's also not good for my heart yeah well it's been quite divisive understandably somebody when somebody loses you have beaten a seven-time world champion they've beaten the team that have dominated this era it was great to see there were some moments of respect and you've always said you respect lewis and i think we can relate having had teammates it's very difficult to to really be close to your teammate and it's very difficult to be close to competitors because their success is your failure and your success is lewis's failure can you share any of the words you may have spoken to them about i mean uh of course i you know i was the whole team we were going crazy but of course you also have the other side where you know they are very disappointed and upset so um i think what was nice of course you know lewis immediately you know he came to me well done congrats you know and i said well you know thank you very much for an amazing season because at the end of the day i think it was an amazing season whoever won or became second because we did push each other every single race to the limit with ourselves but also the car you know and and the whole team at the end of the day everyone every single race i think everyone is very happy that the season is over to have a bit of a break because it has been very tense and and very tough on everyone but yeah it was a definitely a great rivalry there's been more grand prix in two seasons compacted together and we've ever seen the history of the the sport um that in itself has taken the energy i think from from many people we heard there about the small conversation and respect between lewis and max anthony hamilton going through a similar situation to yourself was also here did you have a chance to do father to father conversation or yeah when i was sitting with max after the podium or before he went up to the podium anthony was there and he congratulated us so that was a nice uh that was really nice and also during the season i had some conversations with him over there whatsapp so uh no no he's he's really nice he's i mean they won seven titles already so it for them is a bit different i think when when we win the first one so yeah but he's he's always respectful that's great to hear and you hear that when we win the first one your father expects more should we take a walk inside get some air conditioning and we can reflect on the season pretty good after the success of last year's podcast with max and josh verstappen and me of course carnex have asked us to do it all again we've put the band back together we're going to be reviewing the 2021 season that i think we've got plenty to discuss poor is in the cockpit because the world was divided there was very few neutrals people either wanted you to win or they wanted lewis to win so the emotional rollercoaster was something that was you know it was 90 minutes of very intense uncertainty so your mind after you tried that first pass and it didn't work out the stewards felt that there was no need for lewis to get back the place how did you keep a composure and at any point did you think it was slipping away from you well i mean of course it didn't look great throughout the whole race i mean they were clearly faster but i i just said to myself it doesn't matter i'm just gonna push regardless and i'm not gonna give them a big gap and basically at the end of the day because of that they never had a free stop and that always gave us the opportunity to put new tires and different tires and that also at the end you know i was on a soft he was still on his old hard tires so um yeah it did give us that flexibility even though we were too slow we were still within that pit window and uh yeah just always kept of course hoping for a miracle and and and that came well that miracle came in the shape of uh latifi driving a williams mercedes so that should cancel any thought that there was some sort of conspiracy who in the most bizarre way crashed the car towards it turned 13 or 14 the end of the lap at that moment yes when you're there your your mind is probably resigned to the fact that the world championship is slipping away where were you at that moment and and take us on that five lap journey to the checkered flag i um i left the the pit and i went upstairs to sit quiet at my television lap times because also i didn't had a feeling it was going to happen i didn't want the cameras on my face all the time so i was quiet raymond came in i think 20 lips 20 laps before the end and then latifi crashed so five laps to go and we were hoping we were jumping we were we were happy and you know get this car out of the way and let them raise and you know it was yeah i i can't express it it's so emotional and then they did get the car out of the way the cars between them they they could pass like they normally do and then there was one more lap to go you know and i'm you know everybody knows if max is behind the last lap he will try whatever happens and we were just thinking where he will do it and he did it in lap in in corner five what i didn't expect that's the way where you should overtake because then you have two long straights uh coming so i mean and then lewis came alongside him in into the the new fast corner it's crazy exciting i i couldn't you know tears in my eyes exciting nervous everything comes together so i'm an emotional rollercoaster right because he is your son but he's a man in his own right so like you i thought he'd gone too early in turn five but what do we know you know it turned out it was the perfect move so absolutely this sense of pride must be something that very few parents get to experience because we all love our children we all want the best for our children but your child is is representing not only you as a family himself a an entire racing team but um you know millions of people around the world that have suddenly you know discovered that orange is their new favorite color yeah it's um it's incredible but it's also with all the emotions there for the whole year you know going really well then bad lurk and all the things happen that made it so much more intense you know so much you want to win this last race and and to win the championship and that came all together there's almost a risk that because this has been arguably the greatest ever season of formula one the most intense battle for a world championship it's it's almost like a musician having an international hit how do you improve on that have you got any fear i don't need to improve on this uh for me it doesn't need to be like this every single year i don't think you can last a long time a formula one like that but uh yeah i'm i'm happy of course how it played out but it was an amazing season i think you know a lot of unpredictable things happened um of course you know the two teams fighting against each other that is always more exciting than when it's one team dominating and it's just the two teammates basically fighting i have to ask because as an ex driver and now working in the media i see those that are positive towards you and i see those that are negative towards you some of it is fair comment if there's been quite aggressive racing and some of it of course is just you know biased and and it's because some people always want to find negativity how as a young man because you're still only 24 how have you been equipped how are you equipped to to not get drawn into that because we're all humans you know we're all sensitive to negativity and we all of course love to be praised um that's why i always try to stay very neutral so when people are very positive of course it's nice to hear but i i don't really take a lot out of it and also when people are negative so that's why i'm when you're always very leveled and nothing can really disturb you and i think that especially you know throughout this year was very important because of of course you know you have the buyer side and the two sides in general um so when you stay very neutral then nothing can really affect you okay we're going to take it back to the very beginning of the season if we can so we've got all the amazing emotion of having achieved your goal but if you can cast your mind back yours to pre-season because again you know as an ex-grand prix driver you get a feeling for a new car when it's launched as to whether it's going to be competitive or whether there's work to be done it's fair to say that when red bull partnered with honda there was a lot of people wondering if if that relationship could really work so you saw the initial testing in bahrain can you remember your emotions your feeling back then yeah i must say immediately and what i always do is i wanted to hear it from him when he jumped the first impression is so important and when i when he did his first runs and he came out you i could see it you know and also what he said and uh and then also the laptop showed uh that we had a competitive car and mercedes was struggling with the rear i mean so at that moment already i thought yeah maybe we were in for a very good season and it was like that it turned out that way knowing that your father prefers to hear it from you than from the lap time do you ever make fun do you ever go you know i don't think this car's working i like to hear that but no i mean of course you know when i jumped out of the car you have these discussions but um maybe i'll do that next year just you know fake a bit my feelings you mentioned there about you heard the rumors that preseason the mercedes were struggling with the rear but you never really know do you you know your car you know the conditions you're running it what engine mode how much fuel tires it's quite difficult to actually put your finger on it until you get to the first grand prix so how much of that let's say rumor mill of mercedes maybe having a bit more of a challenge gave you hope for the year ahead or were you just looking at the testing i was you know uh in in in pre-season is always very hard and especially how dominant they they were the year before you never know right even if they have a bit of a bad balance they had so much margin that even with a bad balance they would still be ahead um but then we had a good balance and we were quite happy with the package we had and that definitely showed also in the first race weekend but of course up until fb2 fb3 you don't really know but clearly yeah throughout that weekend we you know you could see it was it was a good package just on that though you say the package was good but of course it's a moving target you have to evolve the car so where were you focusing your mind and focusing the mind of the engineers on where you had to develop you always want more power yeah you always want more scopes yeah but what were you saying because you're the voice of the car and clearly none of your teammates with the greatest respect drive the car as quickly as you do so they're hanging on your words they need your guidance yeah i mean i think in general what had been our weakness was the rear you know the especially the year before we're just really nervous on the rear so that was naturally our focus to try and make that a lot better and i think even throughout the year you know we really tried to do work on that too you know to find a bit more real grip the emotional roller coaster yes of standing back and and watching max perform out on track i'll focus on the positive because i think it would be unfair at this point to ask if there was a point where you you had to take him to the side and have a private conversation with him but let's look at the positive what is the moment other than that last lap winning the world title that you're most proud of the way he performed on track it may have been an overtake it may have been an attitude when he was out of the car it would be great to have your insights it's it's hard to to to name only one thing because so many so many things happen during the season but for me is is when i see his quali lapse in q3 the way he's driving the car on the limit like he did in jeddah you know that was an unbelievable lap but saying that also here in in abu dhabi that qualifying lab was unreal and that's he has such a special feeling in the car it's yeah it's incredible so you probably don't know what that special feeling is because you have it a little bit like i didn't know why i couldn't go faster because i didn't have it i is it looks like it comes very easy to you but of course you talk about a cramp that you experienced during the race you know lewis has spoken about some of the the grand prix being the toughest of his career this is a hard physical challenge yeah so you know poor is in the cockpit or put us inside your mind how how do you you know focus your energy and and what do you find the most taxing part of being a grand prix driver well a lot of things go through your mind every single race uh when it's going well or not you know you're thinking a lot in your head like uh is this gonna go well it's not and then you see it's not gonna go well but i always keep telling myself you know don't give up don't give up just keep pushing keep trying to every lap try to be you know smooth trying to hit apex is nice try to be nice on tires and that constant like telling yourself don't give up keep keep at it like you know the last race it didn't look great we were way too slow and i couldn't keep up and i just kept telling myself something might happen you never know until the last corner of the last lap so i just kept telling myself just do the best you can keep pushing keep pushing yourself um and these things come back quite often to other race when you're on the lead or catching or second turret is this something that you just have inherently in your makeup or is this something you worked on together in car well before i would have my dad like next to the the goku track telling me go go like this he would almost like jump onto the track to try and make me go faster i i never forget the the images i i even did that in formula three ian raymond raymond telling me just go to the pit wall get you know go and and we did and sometimes it helped i must say he saw me like a lunatic i was sending him you know everyone was holding the pip board and i was hanging over the wall you know tell them to go quicker so for sure or you would do like this smooth driving is that right so that's the signals we're driving yeah you haven't been able to do that for some time you know he doesn't need it now i mean i think in all the years we we we spent together i think it's it's in him you know it's inside him and he doesn't need it anymore and he knows how to qualify i think in the beginning of his career in formula three he was still finding that um we say perfect lap and i think during this formula one career he improved on that quite a lot and now he is i mean he's the man to beat and qualifying 100 and on track of course well there's no question to that statement because you sit here as the world champion so you can back that up with more pole positions this year than anyone else more victories this year than anyone else it's quite you know it's quite a season to reflect on when you look at the amazing names that have come through the sport i've never actually asked you of all of the sort of big names whether it was a schumacher cena whoever the names of the drivers have won multiple championships is there one that you resonated with either from a time when you were watching or when you read the history books someone that you connect with as a as a race driver well uh at the moment i i have a really good friendship with with fernando because already you know when i was still in go-karting i really like his style you know he's also that never give up and real fighter of course unfortunately now the last few years he hasn't been able to do that at the front just because he doesn't have the car but i like his attitude you know he's really on fire and also you know his drive and motivation at his age to still be there in formula one and wanting to be there for a longer time and he always wants to win you know he always wants to do the best for me that's uh it's really nice to to see yeah he is remarkable at 40 years old to still have that motivation let's imagine though throw it forward if he gets a more competitive car you're going wheel to wheel you may respect him and he may be a friend but you're going to send it of course then it's a different story but we will still be of course you know respecting each other a lot but i would like to see him back at the front you know he really deserves it and of course you know he's a two-time world champion and but like i said it's just also really nice just to talk to him and see how he thinks about the situations so again if we sort of look back on the season just moving it forward it's easy now just to go with the champions the job was done but we all know that in this industry even if you win a grand prix you have a very important debrief not to look at all the things you did right but the areas that you can improve so if you reflect on the year now what was a grand prix that you personally felt that maybe it was not your best race driving wise or an area that you feel is a team that you sat down afterwards and said guys we're better than this we we can improve on this well yeah for sure i mean i i i can't really recall a specific race right now but you know golfing sometimes didn't go to plan just because we couldn't get the tires working or whatever that was even in silverstone the case and qualifying it didn't go well hungary was not good you know these kind of things so every single weekend you can do things better in terms of especially tire prep but also setup of the car did we make the right choice from qualifying to the race in terms of how the car was performed even abu dhabi you know did we actually do the right thing for the race maybe not in terms of how we set up the car so yeah there are always of course things to to look at and for sure try and improve for next year as well just you know to of course the cars are going to be completely different but you can always learn from it and you're stepping back because you're not immersed in the engineering you're not immersed in the driving you're there as a support system for your son do you feel that you can sometimes see things and and you have a position to be able to either discuss that with max or can you go to christian or or helmut marco and just sit down and have an open conversation how do you how do you handle that side of it no i must say i really step back on that on that side i mean also as you know david how the cars are today it's completely different than in our time and i like to hear it but i don't interfere at all i speak to max's engineer because i like gp a lot but it's only very very briefly and you know but i like that and and not more than that you know i'm i'm happy not to get involved you know and i don't want to so it's good it's good like this if you look back in the season what was the race where you you really were surprised by the performance that you were able to get from the car or the grand prix and and mercedes looked like they were somehow slipping away in the championship well i i think the two austria races i mean when you look at the track it's not our track like it just doesn't look like it's suited for our car but all the time when we go there we're quick we don't know really why we're that good we know why the car is working well and stuff but we don't know why we're you know that far ahead of the others so you know sometimes you have these kind of like mexico as well of course the altitude helps but we are always quick there sometimes the car is just suited to to attract boston as well austin i was very surprised to be on pole that's for sure yeah and also to win it i mean they were yeah we even in the race were too slow but we still managed to to to win the race yeah it was a brilliant piece of strategy that won you the race there and i think that what i hope the viewers of this will appreciate and get an insight to is is the honesty of how teams you don't always know why you're quick you know everyone thinks that formula one is so much detail engineering and science and everybody knows everything but there are moments you just can't explain and i think you've shared that with us uh very well um when when we look at how the the championship was ebbing and flowing you say you always look in the positive which i think you can do a whole self-help book or videos to get a lot of people could benefit from from that positive mental attitude but in terms of keeping the energy across the season you you have to have the right diet the right training the right down time positive distraction so we know what you do when you're at the track what what is your positive distraction when you're away from the track you go out on the ocean racing so more driving yeah because it keeps me you know just ready to go i because you i'm spending a lot of time also then on the setup and dif is i'm not racing from one car on the simulator but it's like gt cars so it's also a different technique of driving so i just keep testing myself and especially you know these sim drivers they're so quick you know they they it's very interesting to see them drive because they have no real experience of a car but somehow when you look at how they're braking how they're controlled it is how it should be so it's very uh interesting for me you know to then compare myself to them because they are naturally quick on the same i'm naturally quick in real life and then for me that's another motivation because i know whatever you know i i'm confident that when i jump in a real car i'll be quick but on the simulator these guys are the benchmark and i have to push myself to that limit so i like to to just test myself and and improve myself to also learn from them so my downtime down time i'm still trying to improve myself which i think also helps me in real life when you're on the simulator are you driving a grand prix car or are you driving cars so gt's so they're better on sims even like lmp2 cars whenever yeah and you have your own team or you're part of a team yeah what is the team called yeah team redline so we have a lot of drivers and you know they they're also there we had an amazing year we've won basically almost everything within you know the sim racing community so that was also a lot of fun to be part of because i was having a good time on track of course winning in formula one but also sharing these moments with them and actually also sometimes being part of the lineup winning these races you know it's just amazing because it's the same you know you're also pushing flat out you need to take it seriously you really need to you know work together to make it happen because also there you can change a lot of things on the setup and then it's all about preparation strategy as well because when you're doing a 24 hour race around the norch life it's it's quite tough it's crazy yeah david when you hear them talking about sim i know i don't like driving a semi i can't do it without crashing you get dizzy i get dizzy and he is so involved and so motivated to be the same as he is and for formula one he's on the scene even during the f1 weekends when i jump out of my car i would be on discord like texting the guy hey guys like how is it going if they would have a race or like keep me updated with set up things ideas to try all these kind of things so this is your positive distraction when you go there one thing i'm really curious is you know when you said it there you know when you jump in the real car you can drive it to its limit you've through what you've explained there acknowledge that some of the simulator drivers are maybe a little bit quicker than you or better than you it takes me a little bit longer to to be really competitive that's for sure so how does that psychologically work for you because on one hand you're there as a professional grand prix driver owning the moment knowing you're you're the quickest guy out there on the other hand you're looking at these professional sim racers and having to go god i'm letting the team down because it's taking me longer to get up to speed yeah but then i i'm still confident that i'll get to to that point but i just need to work a little bit harder for her but that's also a nice motivation and a nice thing to do you know i need to put in a few more hours to to be competitive and uh and then i'm like well anyway if the race is starting we'll get the other teams anyway a few more hours a few more hours well i think 40 hours of preparation for a 24-hour race i think it's 40-50 it's 40-50 hours of preparation before because i want to win whatever i do i want to go to not to look like an idiot so when i'm on the simulator i'm also flat out so there's the thing again the realization i'm so used to being the idiot that uh i've just not pushed myself hard enough in life it is fascinating so look if we if we get a bit more into the season specific highs and lows um because i think there'll be moments that we can all agree where transitional moments for for the the season so if we can put you back in baku azerbaijan you're leading the grand prix everything looks like it's under control the tire blows and as far as i know we still don't have an official explanation as to whether a cut from a cab or whether it was just a specific failure but there's that sort of iconic little what they call it a gif where you get out kick the kick the car in frustration but take us back there where your mind was at that time yeah of course you know i was already counting the points what i would gain but you know um racing can be very unpredictable and that showed in in in baku and that was at the end of the day also it could have been a very crucial different shader in i mean if i would have won that race then we wouldn't have even been i think in the situation here in abu dhabi where everything was so tense and exciting but yeah it's part of it and you have to deal with it and it's not nice but that you know that that can happen and it can happen to you it can happen to to anyone well i think if i come to you yours and move to the next big incident tar failures mechanical failure you'll see things happen silverstone a crash through contact you've got mixed emotions i completely understand because one you know that that is affecting not only the potential health of your son so that's the first priority but you know there's big points being lost there so if you can maybe sort of tell us where you were were you actually outside i don't recall of course you know when when you see that happening with such a big impact you don't think of anything else you know i run down the stairs i had to go to the medical center just wanted to see him and how he's doing and then afterwards you know you look at the incident and how things are happening and i have my own view of about you know what happened there but also after the season you know they were celebrating like uh like the wonder championship torture and and the driver and i was sitting with him in the hospital to see if everything is all right as a dad i don't like that i mean there's you can't you know you you you put somebody in hospital and then they're celebrating like crazy and for me that was very difficult to handle so that was a low point for you personally few people thankfully will ever experience that sort of impact that speed you're a professional racing driver you've you've kind of become not numb to crashes but it's part of whether you're in karting or within cars it happens sometimes that accident you you know did it change anything in your mind in terms of the focus for the championship or how were you feeling at that time uh no it didn't change anything for for the championship or the way i was racing or whatever but it was definitely not a nice impact and especially the days after you know you really felt bad like sore everywhere and you you don't want to have to have these things happening to you uh too many times but i also knew that was a big points hit so i was like well that you know potentially might be a big difference at the end of the the season um but i was like well it doesn't matter we just go again you know we keep on pushing we keep trying and that's what we did but then we went to hungary we had another shunt but you know also that is racing at the end of the day you just can't control these things what i find amazing is you know you have such a big impact and you you have one for sure i had one and then the next time back in the car how is he going to react that was important for me you know i spoke with with the team about it with gp about it you know give him time and you know but then his first lap you know in hungary i was unbelievable again he was so he jumped out with a big accident the next time back in the car he was flat out you know flat out but really fast on the first lap again and that was for me a sign it's okay so another consideration that you have as a father that of course the race fans wouldn't be aware of so you were just a little bit nervous had it taken an edge off would it take longer to get back up to speed yes because i had it myself yeah yeah indeed i did do a sim racing between them so you got your eye back in but what's worse that could happen in a simulator you your air conditioning is not good in your apartment it was just it was because um they didn't they told me for a few days i was not allowed to be on screens and tvs like i just had to rest my brain after the incident um and then basically i did also the the the endurance race on the sim just to see if everything was working well that i didn't get dizzy or whatever and it was fine the first few laps were a bit you know the focus was a bit off but i think it was nice just to get back into it and then of course the flanker everything was miles faster but also that like my dad says i i could feel that everyone was a bit like how is it going to be but also for me that's the motivation to show them like it's going to tradition christian looked and his same christian was thinking you know he wasn't and that then it was fine that's a nice nice piece of insight well the roller coaster continued we went to monza and by the fate of the racing gods i think lewis had had uh a bad stop which had put him out of sequence you'd had a bad pit stop when in terms of the tire changing you end up meeting at the first chicane and it happened again thankfully in in less violent terms the coming together but that surely has to be one of the iconic shots of the history of formula one your car sitting on top of lewis's car seemingly you guys are inseparable across the season uh yeah i mean it was of course not great that whole situation i yeah of course i i got a penalty for it which i didn't agree with but it is i think it's gonna be an iconic shot for sure luckily everyone was safe as well but yeah it was an interesting way of how we were on top of each other yeah well maybe you can get a picture and sign it to lewis for christmas as a you know i think like soon we can we can laugh about it all right now well thankfully there was there was no serious injury to either of you throwing it forward further we have the first dutch grand prix since the 80s i think it was 85. you've got holland watching you you've got this incredible fan base that you've managed to to inspire people to want to go to support you the orange army you know it's the pressure is building seemingly it appears to the outside everyone's asking you are you under pressure you're you you must be getting fed up and pissed off with all the same line of questionings because you don't just handle it with british tv you have it with the french and the italians it's part of being a professional driver you then go out and drive an incredible grand prix seemingly under the most intense pressure from lewis and win it can you now acknowledge whether you did feel a little bit of pressure or besides the last grand prix i think that was the race here where i felt of course more pressure than other ones because you know everyone expected me to win there the fans you know it was like you know max is coming here and he's going to do it he's going to win but of course we're in this tense battle and you know it was going a bit up and down in terms of performance but yeah the whole weekend of course i wanted it to be perfect and it was basically almost perfect you couldn't have done a better proposition in winning the race but also the way in the race you know they really threw everything at me with strategy with the two cars you know playing a different one and we still managed to to win it so it was an amazing feeling but also when i crossed the line i was also relieved i was like the weekend is done i'm like i can rest now yeah it takes some time off to reflect um you're in this unique situation because you're based in monaco um you you had part of your childhood in belgium uh you're of dutch descent of course so you can claim the belgian grand prix as a home race the zamboart grand prix and holland is the home race and monaco which hasn't always been kind to you in the past yeah the walls kept moving but this time so sopranos she came at me yeah this time they weren't like magnets you were somehow able to find your way through kissing the barriers and get the victory it does that mean more to you because it's the street circuit and they've got all the history it's just you know up until then it's like i don't even have a podium here like it's insane and okay most of it most of the time it was my own fault that i didn't get to the podium or win a race there because we had two years where we had a really good car before this year two to win it and i basically two times i i blew it myself but um yeah it was something of course you want you want to achieve first of all podium but then of course we we wanted but also again it was not a straightforward weekend because i was on for the poll lab then a red flag of course in the labs i couldn't actually claim pole position at the end i started first because of charles not starting but i also felt a bit like that should have been my spot anyway on the lap i was on so still i was like monica's still not kind to me you know with all these things still happening but then we managed to to win the race and i was like that's done as well you know it's like monaco is one now it is a great grand prix to win isn't it yeah why it's just that the focus you need to have is so much higher than any other track because of it being so narrow you also have other street circuits but you have a bit of time to rest there is a bit more space you have run-off areas here you don't you know a little lock-up or a mistake you're in the wall you turn in a little bit too early the corner is off you know it's some street circuits at least you have a curb or whatever you know you you can clip over but not a monaco so yeah okay you're not driving on the limit all the time in the race but that sometimes is a danger as well because you then tend to relax and then you make a mistake so you have to keep telling yourself every lap focus don't relax you know just keep at it so it is a very challenging race it's many lamps yes did you have a knack for street circuits i don't recall yours also monica was not kind to me it was not kind to the family until they said all right you hit a few barriers yeah i did but different places than he does so uh we claimed every car rail now around the track you should rename the barriers as well as having your name on the trophy if we look to the future you this championship will forever be with you your name is now there in in grand prix history but of course formula one is about constant improvement so where do you improve how do you improve on the season you will of course gain life experience because you're now at the age that i first started in formula one and i was a kid at 24 like you're so much more mature than i was i don't know how you feel you were a bit younger than me when i started informing you we started the same year yeah younger than me yeah yeah i must say when i look at him he's so far further than i was at my age but it's also i think it's the way he raced in in motorsport we were always talking about things he knew so much more than i ever did in in in racing you know when he did is her first test i remember it was a pembry in the firm of renault what was import i told him make sure if you fully in the braking that the car is moving with brake balance because then you have more front grip it was so i had to find out myself and probably i find it out in formula three at the end of the year but that was his first thing he had to do in a racing car you know and it's and there's only a small part you know and it's so much more and he's he knew so much more than than i ever did and that's that's very good actually that's an interesting point because you could influence in a positive way max as a young driver when he was having these first time experiences like driving and pembroke in this car clearly we you know you can't help him now when it comes to driving he's he's in another another era so what would you as a father see as areas that you can help him if it's not on track he's a grown man he's living his life but you know the fathering instinct is always there well i don't think i i need to teach him anything anymore i did i did that before this uh he told me a few times also to shut up because i was just asking so many questions when i was little in the van like driving back please stop talking now always asking questions so yeah well for you then what area do you do you feel that you will work on or are you just taking the life journey and the opportunities as they come yeah for me i always say to myself you're never perfect in any area so let's say you're at 98 whatever you can call it i always look at it i can always improve because it's not i can improve massively in there so massively in that it's just tiny things or how can i try to influence the weekend a bit better you know how can i prepare myself better how can i make sure that i understand the balance of the car better for the qualifying race you know these kind of differences so how can i understand the tires better all these kind of things of course next year the tires will be different again so you have to learn that as well but you always look in these kind of areas like what can i understand or learn from all the these experiences i've had so far next year completely different set of regulations so it's still formula one but just not as we know it the teams have been working on this for some time so you get an early indication maybe you've driven the simulated already can you explain a little bit to the uh the race fans out there what will this new formula one represent how much slower will it be will it actually be better for racing is it going to be more suited to use it more suited to lewis what can we expect well i mean i like the current cars in terms of speed because it's really impressive how much grip you have so the new cars definitely will be a few seconds slower but of course that is with the idea of having better racing that you can follow a bit closer and that's what they want because at the moment of course when you get close you have a lot of disturbance from the car in front so i do hope that is going to happen you know the tires will look completely different 18-inch so um yeah again different reaction from the tires as well for sure i have to adapt my driving to it because everyone always says what is your how is your driving style like i'm like i don't think i actually have one it's just you adapt to the situation that is your driving style because if the car is under steering you have to adapt yourself to the understeer if the car is oversteering you have to adapt yourself to that so there is not one you cannot say this is my driving style that's how i'm gonna drive it's impossible because sometimes it just doesn't work with the material you have so i think adaptation at the end of the day is key we mentioned the 18 inch rims and therefore smaller sidewalls when we race them from the owners with these big sidewalls i have raced in other formulas with you know bigger wheels and and you have as well and sports cars and like i didn't really feel a big difference because you match the wheels and the the wheel rate to the suspension so is it really that big a talking point or would i i mean i've only driven it on the same um but it feels a little bit sharper the the reaction of the tires and uh just the general traction you have out of corners feel a bit different so yeah i'm interested of course to see how it's gonna feel in real life you've achieved your ultimate goal you've won the world championship and you've always said that that's enough for you so what is the next motivation other than to take race by race well everything that comes now is a bonus and i'm just going to enjoy it isn't that fantastic isn't that so refreshing because i think that people imagine that you guys are so you know selfish for for success that if you don't do eight titles then you know you're somehow compared but this championship seems to me that this is like eight titles in one you need a bit of luck as well isn't it to to be able to fight for seven or whatever eight you need a very dominant team to be able to do that so you know you don't always have that luck or that you are not in that era sometimes it just doesn't happen so for me i always wanted to win one and then you know you'll see what where you go from there um and like i said yeah everything what comes now is a bonus but that's still you know that doesn't mean that if i lose a raise i i will still be upset but still then maybe a few minutes after i'll be like it's okay so yes max is is in this situation where you know incredible achievements this year but at 24 you will still evolve as a man that's just the way of life have you discovered something about yourself in this year's battle this year's championship that you didn't know in your late 40s about yourself well not really discovered i think i knew myself already a little bit before that so uh but i must say it was stands and i i think even in private life they could feel that you know i was a bit more uh quicker angry and you know because of things was what happened and so uh with this i think now for me it's you know it's done and i'm really going to enjoy the coming months you know spend as much time at home and and to enjoy the little kids i have and yeah hopefully they're not going to drive though because to go through all of that again no no it's for me they don't need to race you know like just they should play football because then you know you can buy them new shoes and a new ball every single weekend still it's still way cheaper than racing so yeah so i'm experiencing that now because my 13 year old wants to race and wants to be in formula one and he passes on his congratulations of course um it is fantastic for me to see how these these young teenagers are influenced by it's good for them you know it's competitive they learn you know they it's for to grow up they get they get a man quicker you know do you have to stand up for yourself as you know and it's for me it's just a very good school that's for sure yeah here here well gentlemen it's been a pleasure as always and it's been wonderful on behalf of our next to to share these insights the day after you became the latest formula one world championship family um i think the best way to close this would be max i don't know if you have a camera line there but if you look down the camera introduce yourself for those who don't know your name as the 2021 formula one world champion yeah uh well i mean uh of course my name is max stapin and i like to drive in circles and uh yeah we had a very good day yesterday no that's you know i i what are you what i'm i'm um you're the 2021 formula one world champion yeah no that's that's very true i still need to get used to it can you see it for us i think that's a wonderful way to close it yeah well my name is max steppen and i'm the 2021 world champion good is that i loved it it was nice yeah this is awesome it's awesome isn't it it's like so cool yeah well done son

Channel: CarNext

Views: 1,993,892

Keywords: max verstappen, verstappen, jos verstappen

Id: J0AQf_eJ8ug

Length: 49min 50sec (2990 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021