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Max Verstappen branded his retirement from the Australian Grand Prix “frustrating and unacceptable” and says he doesn’t “even want to think about the championship fight” after his second DNF in three Formula 1 races.
Verstappen was on course to finish second behind dominant race winner Charles Leclerc who only gave Verstappen one sniff at victory when he ran wide just before the final safety car restart.
Otherwise, Verstappen had no answer for the pace of the Ferrari driver who he had fought with for race wins in Bahrain and Jeddah.
In Bahrain, Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez retired due to a fuel pressure problem, while in Jeddah, Verstappen beat Leclerc to the victory.
Verstappen’s second retirement in three races leaves him sixth in the drivers’ championship, some 46 points adrift of leader Leclerc.
Heartbreak for Max Verstappen in Australia 💔
An podium opportunity missed for the Dutchman after a strong showing ended prematurely with a car problem 😫#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/DXeOAe1r4X
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 10, 2022
“We’re already miles behind, I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment, I think it’s more important to finish races,” Verstappen said when asked by Sky how it affects his title hopes.
“Today in general was just a bad day again, not really having the pace. Just managing my tyres and trying to bring it to the end.
“Quite an easy P2 and I knew I could not fight Charles so was no point trying to put pressure on him.
“We didn’t even finish the race, so pretty frustrating and unacceptable.”
Verstappen said he “knew there was a problem” before the race so there was always going “to be a question mark of finishing the race”.
“These kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen,” he admitted.
“I don’t know [what the problem was] I had to stop the car. They have to get the car back home and investigate.”
