Autosportfoto

Max Verstappen would prefer his failing F1 engines to blow up

Max Verstappen would rather his Formula 1 engines were blowing up than shutting down, after revealing his failed Renault fired up in the garage after the Belgian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was forced out of the race at Spa when a sensor shut down his Renault engine after detecting increasing pressure inside the fourth cylinder.

After his fourth mechanical failure of the season, and sixth retirement, Verstappen told Dutch TV show Peptalk that new safety measures introduced left him more annoyed.

"Because we blew up a few engines at the beginning of the season, they have built a kind of safety mode," said Verstappen.

"But at that moment, when the engine goes into that, it doesn't run any more.

"So when the car came back, they removed the plug, put it back again and the engine worked.

"They want to play safe and not to blow the engine, but I prefer that [blowing the engine] than its shuts down the engine and it runs again at the next restart."

Jos Verstappen said at Spa he and his son were losing faith in the Red Bull-Renault alliance's ability to rectify the situation.

The younger Verstappen revealed he let Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko knows how annoyed he is.

"I've spoken with Helmut again and told him that I'm not happy," he said.

"The fun fades away.

"You go on holiday, charge yourself after a kind of terrible [first part of the] season and then you arrive at Spa and it goes wrong."

After his father claimed "this won't last if things keep going like this", Verstappen admitted the situation was "only getting worse".

He said: "You sign a deal with Red Bull and you want a winning package. We don't have that at the moment.

"I've let them know I'm not happy, just like after the previous DNF, but it's only getting worse of course.

"I know it isn't coming from Red Bull, but in the end it's the entire package you are depending on."

Pushed on whether the situation was now so bad he was contemplating tearing up his contract, Verstappen said: "No, that's not possible.

"The problem with F1 is that the differences are too big.

"We can't do much at the moment."

Asked what happens next, he said: "We'll see, at the end of the contract."

Zdroj: autosport.com