Jos Verstappen: We have to do something about wet tires

Jos Verstappen, father of reigning world champion Max Verstappen, summed up the Monaco Grand Prix in his column, criticizing the FIA, Pirelli tires and Red Bull Racing for the strategy the team chose for his son.

“To be honest, I didn’t have a very good impression of the race weekend in Monaco,” Jos wrote. – And that’s putting it mildly. Firstly, I think the race should have started at the scheduled time. These days it seems like everyone in Formula 1 is stressed at the first drop of rain.

Of course the start would have been chaotic and the teams would have doubted the tire choice for the first segment, but this is exactly what the fans want to see. We just sat and waited. Then it turned out that there were some problems with the starting traffic light. The FIA, or whoever is responsible for it, must ensure that backup equipment is available for this type of situation.

Then there was a start behind the safety car, which in my opinion reduced the intensity of the race. Especially in Monaco. We are in professional sports and things like this shouldn’t happen.

It just amazes me how little grip wet tires provide. This is not news, but this situation has been going on for a long time and something needs to be done about it. The tires must be able to withstand three centimeters of water. In the days of Bridgestone and Michelin, tires could handle such conditions.

Also, there are now too many red flags. In qualifying, Yuki Tsunoda hit a protective barrier with his wheel and immediately red flags were displayed, ruining the efforts of other riders.

As a father I am disappointed with the race and Max’s third place. He had a difficult weekend – the car still doesn’t suit his driving style. Max doesn’t like the low traction of the front axle, and this is especially evident in the slow corners of Monaco. This car is just hard to fly.

Red Bull had a good result but did little to help Max regain the position. Max’s third place at the finish is due to a Ferrari error. Max, the championship leader, was not helped by the strategy the team had chosen for him. In addition, their strategy completely worked for Sergio. It upset me – I wish the championship leader was different.

Perez even won the race thanks to an early pit stop. The team can explain their decision by saying they took a risk, but they saw from the example of Pierre Gasly that intermediate tires were the best choice for that segment of the race. I would like them to choose such a strategy for Max, but of course I am not completely objective.

As a result, Max lost ten points. Considering he’s already had two retirements, we need every point. Remember Ferrari has a better car now, especially in qualifying.

Max was unlucky in qualifying – he went much faster in the final run and could have won second place when Perez crashed the car. Starting from second position for Max, everything could have turned out differently.

But I’m happy for Sergio. The win in Monaco is special and I hope he enjoyed it. Now we have to fully focus on the next races in Baku and Canada.”