Verstappen was ‘Over Eager’ in the Last Few Races

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has admitted that his ward Max Verstappen has been “over-eager” in the early stages of the 2018 Formula 1 season.

Verstappen has been in the thick of action in a series of incidents. Things came to a head when he collided with his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. The accident ended both Red Bulls’ races at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

But Horner has backed Verstappen to come back stronger from his difficult start to the year. So far, the 20-year-old Dutchman has had a fifth and a sixth place and two retirements.

“Ultimately, he will emerge the other side of this, the most important thing is to learn from mistakes,” Horner said. “The start of this season has been tough for him, in many cases it’s looked like he’s over-eager. I’m extremely confident that he will learn from and recognise his mistakes.”

Horner firmly stated that Red Bull will stand by its “no number one and number two driver” policy. He also said that they are determined to re-sign Daniel Ricciardo for 2019. The Englishman is confident that Verstappen will learn from the example set by Ricciardo.

“The other thing he benefits from, or will benefit from, is that his team-mate is very polished and the finished article and obviously at a different stage in his development,” said Horner.

“I think he can and will learn a lot of lessons from Daniel because, even after the incident in Azerbaijan, there is a respect that he has for him.

“Daniel provides a very good and rounded benchmark there.”

Horner was also impressed with Verstappen and Ricciardo’s conduct in the aftermath of the Azerbaijan GP collision.

“They stood in front of the staff and apologised and they spoke very openly,” said Horner.

“We’ve had a discussion in my office about the incident and they will talk in private about it in order to learn from it.

“Both drivers handled the aftermath to Baku in an exemplary manner, in the way they dealt with the media, they’ve come here and stood in front of every employee and apologised.

“The best way for them to make up for that is by delivering on track.”