Daniel Ricciardo has come out in defense of his 18 year old Red Bull teammate in the aftermath of an incident packed Belgian Grand Prix for the teenager.
Verstappen’s antics during the race at Spa-Francorchamps have sparked heated debate and divided the Formula 1 world.
Ricciardo told ESPN at Monza, “You’ve just got to find a balance, he’ll find it. He’s obviously still very young, I was nowhere near Formula One at 18 years old so he’s already in a different position to me.”
“It’ll come with some maturity but at the same time I think the basics for him are in the right place; he wants to fight, he wants to battle and wants to stand his own ground so it’s not all that bad.”
The Australian believes that putting pressure on the teenager to change his racing style will be negative.
“I think he will if everyone keeps giving him a hard time. I think he will [rebel] because it’s probably just age coming out, I know when I was – I mean I’m still immature – but at that age you’re going through a lot and you’re growing up from a boy to a man, you want to be your own man, so when someone tells you to do something I think your natural reaction is to oppose it.”
“I think it’s just a bit of that coming out and maybe a bit of frustration after the race, I don’t expect it to change night and day this weekend, perhaps it will just be refined over the course of the season.”
The popular Australian driver recalls his early days at the pinnacle of the sport, “When I joined Formula One I knew that what I found is that the cars are so much faster and it took me a little while to understand where to always put the car.”
“In racing things start coming up quicker and the slipstream is stronger, so even judging in the mirrors how quick the cars are approaching isn’t always easy.”
Fate has it that Verstappen’s nemesis on track this season has been surly veteran Kimi Raikkonen who has voiced his displeasure about Verstappen’s tactics, of which he was on the receiving end in Belgium.
“I don’t disagree with Kimi,” conceded Ricciardo. “But I’ll give the younger drivers the benefit of the doubt for now and I trust that it will come over time with some age, whether it happens tomorrow or not, I don’t know, but yeah, it’s not a concern.”
Content on GrandPrix247.com by: staff & contributors, Reuters, AFP, GMM, Getty, Formula 1 teams, sponsors & organisations.
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
No comments:
Post a Comment