Verstappen: Radio problems didnt make French GP win more complicated

Verstappen executed an warlike two-stop strategy to win the French GP superiority of one-stopping Mercedes suburbanite and title rival Lewis Hamilton, with the circumstances of the race playing out withal similar lines to the season opener in Bahrain and the Spanish GP. 

Hamilton won both of those events without Verstappen botched his late passing struggle in Bahrain and Hamilton was switched to a two-stopper at Barcelona that moreover involved giving up track position to his rival, as Red Bull chose to do on Sunday at Paul Ricard. 

But when Verstappen returned to the track to well-constructed his third stint, charged with latter an 18-second gap and passing both Mercedes drivers, Red Bull was at times unable to hear his radio messages. 

The team instructed him to try and move the microphone embedded in his helmet, but this did not seem to make much of an impact as the race entered the latter stages, where Verstappen in any specimen successfully chased when to Hamilton to reuse first – which he had initially lost with an off at the race’s first corners and then unexpectedly taken when by undercutting Hamilton at his first stop. 

When discussing Red Bull’s successful race-winning strategy in the post-race printing conference, Verstappen explained that the team radio issues meant “even if I wouldn’t stipulate to it, I could have been talking on my radio but they would never understand me anyway!” 

He added: “I don’t know [what the problem was].  

“It was literally next to my mouth. I tried to transpiration it and it was unchangingly in the same position as previous races and stuff. So, I don’t know happened.” 

When asked if the radio problem had made his third stint harder, Verstappen replied: “No. 

“I just couldn’t talk when to them. But they of undertow could feed me all the information and that’s the most important [thing] – considering the stops were done.  

“So, I could talk to them [if the radio had been working], but what can you do?” 

Verstappen moreover said that victory in the French GP – previously a Mercedes stronghold where the Black Arrows had been undefeated since the race returned to the F1 timetable in 2018 – was “very promising”.  

“Clearly, in the race with how the conditions were in the whence [cooler and windier compared to qualifying and with less rubber on the track surface without rain on Sunday morning], it was not easy for us,” he continued.  

“But then then towards the end I think the car started to come together then and we were very competitive.  

“Of undertow I’m very pleased for that and I hope that we can alimony this up.”