Verstappen furious about the traffic jams leaving the pits: “They have to move! »

A difficult start to the weekend for Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi. The Dutchman had to give up his place to Isack Hadjar during Free Practice 1 on the Yas Marina circuit, before filing down the track in the evening during FP2. A session disrupted by two red flags… and by traffic jams at the exit of the pit lane.

Very critical of the voluntary slowdowns at the exit of the pits, to create a sufficient gap with the car in front, Max Verstappen attempted a daring maneuver: overtaking the other cars in the tunnel, despite the little space! Obviously, the world champion complained on his radio, and at the end of the session…

If you no longer go for a gap that exists... 😅

Max Verstappen was very keen to get out on track after our second red flag in FP2 👀#AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/XicfiLKLBW

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 24, 2023

“They have to move!” They're all going slow and I want to get out, because [we're] all limited by time. They keep driving in the middle and when I tried to pass they tried to trap me in the wall, it's a bit stupid." grumbled Max Verstappen.

Verstappen unhappy with his RB19

The Batavian was also dissatisfied with the behavior of his car at the end of his only session of the day. Third in EL2 on Friday evening, the driver Red Bull complained about a “very poor balance”. “We had a lot of understeer, a lot of tailgating, so there's definitely something to figure out for tomorrow (…) in order to be good in qualifying, but we'll see. I didn't expect us to be this far away, so it's also a surprise for us. »

Although he does not seem very optimistic for pole position on Saturday, Max Verstappen nevertheless believes that there is still room to improve the RB19. “We're third, it's not too bad, but from a balance point of view I think it can be a lot better, so we'll try to see what happened. »

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