Damon Hill agrees with Jacques Villeneuve’s worrying Max Verstappen stance after Baku

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Max Verstappen had one of his toughest races of the 2024 Formula 1 season during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after getting beat by championship rival Lando Norris.

Norris overtook Max Verstappen after McLaren made a late pit stop onto the medium tyre, enabling the Briton to chase him down for what became fourth place.

Verstappen was running outside of the top five for most of the race but was promoted to fifth after his teammate Sergio Perez collided with Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap of the race. It was the second time Verstappen failed to finish on the podium after his fourth place at the Belgian GP.

Former F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve said it was a ‘strange’ situation for Verstappen in Baku, who hardly spoke to his engineer about strategy.

Having also been outperformed by Perez throughout the race weekend, Damon Hill shared Villeneuve’s views that it was an unusual weekend for the defending World Champion when speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

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Damon Hill expected more outbursts over performance from Max Verstappen

Verstappen is known for being outspoken over the team radio, notably drawing criticism when he made several outbursts to his team during the Hungarian GP.

The Azerbaijan GP was no different as Verstappen complained about the problems he faced throughout the race, branding his RB20 “undrivable” and complaining that his car was jumping at low speed.

Hill felt Verstappen was more reserved on this occasion, likely because he is thinking more about his future with Red Bull and potentially with another team on the grid.

“I get what he’s [Villeneuve] saying completely and I agree with that. I do think there is a resignation with Max. I was expecting more of a ‘Toys Out The Pram’ experience being that he wasn’t competitive. He’s normally very feisty with his comments and demanding and basically saying, I’m not dealing with this. It’s just no good. It’s got to change,” said Hill.

“Maybe he can see that within the team, there are such substantial problems that it’s no good him just coming on the radio and saying ‘I’m not happy’ “He’s got to think of the future. Where is the direction of travel from now on if Red Bull are not competitive.”

Red Bull suffer ‘massive setback’ ahead of Singapore Grand Prix

The next seven races are going to be crucial for Verstappen in the title race with Norris, especially after McLaren overtook Red Bull in the Constructors Championship.

According to Helmut Marko, Red Bull has already suffered a setback heading into the next race at Singapore due to Perez’s crash in Baku.

It is likely the Mexican will need to revert to an older specification floor after Red Bull introduced a minor update at the last round due to the damage he sustained in the incident, which will deny the team an opportunity to run a back-to-back test.

The Singapore GP is the only venue that Verstappen has yet to win at on the current calendar. He goes into the race needing to limit the damage that Norris could do in his 59-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.