Jacques Villeneuve has denied claims that Crimson Bull is tailoring its F1 automotive to Max Verstappen.
4-time world champion Verstappen continued his dominance over his Crimson Bull teammate in 2025, scoring 421 factors in comparison with simply 33 factors for Hiroki Tsunoda.
Verstappen was simply two factors away from successful his fifth consecutive world title, however in the end misplaced the championship to McLaren’s Lando Norris in a three-way showdown on the remaining race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Crimson Bull’s contrasting fortunes have led to hypothesis that the workforce’s automotive is particularly designed to go well with Verstappen’s driving type.
Nevertheless, 1997 F1 world champion Villeneuve denied such rumors.
“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, however this automotive was made for Max, the poor, poor second driver.'” Really, no. Max is engaged on it and making the automotive higher and higher,” Villeneuve mentioned on the Excessive Efficiency Podcast.
“If you cannot drive it in the course of the season, if you cannot perceive what is going on on, you are going to find yourself going slower and slower and slower and slower, not since you’re really slower, however as a result of Max is getting quicker and quicker. It is as a result of you possibly can’t actually perceive what is going on on with the automotive.”
“So clearly they’d work with Max and clearly the automotive would change into undriveable for you. We noticed that with (Sergio) Perez too. Yearly they’d begin the season on par and that was it. Perez did not begin slowing down. Max began getting quicker and quicker and quicker.”
“It is quite simple, as a result of he may really perceive what was occurring with the automotive. Typically the entrance is simply too gentle and it understeers, typically it is too exhausting and it understeers. Typically all of it relies on what’s really occurring.”
“In the course of that, you need to add an aero package deal. The nearer you get to the bottom, the extra grip you may have. So that you want a really stiff automotive. However a stiff automotive mechanically slips.
“So you need to take into consideration what that you must do to get into the proper zone of driving a automotive, the place the automotive turns into a particular a part of your physique and you do not have to consider it anymore. Only a few drivers can try this.”
Verstappen breaks document
Verstappen himself talked about the speculation earlier this yr.
“I am simply adapting to what I’ve. It is not my choice, it is simply what I’ve,” the Dutchman insisted when talking to Chris Harris on Ford Efficiency’s YouTube channel.
“So you need to attempt to drive up there, as a result of that is the quickest strategy to get across the monitor. However that is not what I would like personally. I need a totally different a part of the automotive.”
Requested if he was glad to be praised for his spectacular efficiency, Verstappen mentioned: “In fact I am glad, however I am not doing it to indicate folks what I am able to.”
“I do it as a result of I need to be one of the best at myself. I am fairly a perfectionist in that sense, and that is by no means adequate. In fact, if I can get out of the automotive and say to myself, ‘That is adequate,’ it is by no means adequate, however it’s fairly good.”
