Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché has pinpointed the one F1 trait he believes Max Verstappen has which “no other driver” is capable of.
Verstappen is a central pillar in the rebuild underway at Milton Keynes under Laurent Mekies – and has recently guided the team to its first two grand prix victories with its own in-house Red Bull Powertrains engine.
The Dutchman, a winner of 73 grands prix and four world titles, is renowned for being demanding of his team for a car which suits his driving style – which relies upon a razor-sharp front-end on initial corner turn-in.
During the opening laps of a grand prix weekend in the first practice, it is often Verstappen who initially climbs to the head of the times with an early opening salvo whilst he and the team work to dial the car in – with Waché describing how this feedback the 29-year-old gives the team is unlike anything he has experienced.
“I think the main benefit that he has is the feeling he has of the car,” Waché told RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview.
“I will not call him an engineer, because he is not, but he is giving the engineer something that no other driver I saw can, in terms of feedback and identifying exactly what is needed to be quicker.
“It is insane the capacity he has to feel the car, what is missing when he is driving it, and afterwards to be able to translate that into a world we can understand.
“After the first lap [of practice], he knows exactly where the car is, where the limit is, and he is the best driver I think the sport has ever had, and what makes him even better is that he is able to say: ‘Yeah, I am missing that, I miss that, I miss that.’
“When we are winning, he is a dream. When we are losing, he is a nightmare; I’m joking, but as an engineer, we love him because he gives us performance. He gives us very good feedback, and he is a team player. That is why we like him.”
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Verstappen respect all around
Waché also touched upon the respect Verstappen and the engineering team hold, and how Verstappen is open to new ideas.
“Maybe his engineer [Gianpiero Lambiase], but I don’t want to know; I don’t want to give him my phone number and be called in the middle of the night,” Waché quipped, when asked if Verstappen had ever called him in the middle of the night with an idea.
“No, no, but he respects what we are doing, and he respects the team. He respects the job of everybody, and he just gives his feeling of what is important to him, but he respects our expertise, what he thinks, what we think, and he is quite open-minded.
“He is quite easy to work with, and he is not arrogant in the way he works.”
“It makes me happy when we are winning. I am here for that. If I am not winning, I will not be here.”