Carlos Sainz’s first Las Vegas outing was ruined by the drain lid and while he paid an “unfair” price for it, Max Verstappen defended the driver against the entire grid including his biggest rivals Toto Wolff and Co. Although the Dutchman made it clear that he had not enjoyed his weekend in Vegas, he also has not hesitated to stand against the ones who gave into the “show”.
After the delays that the drain lid and the huge hole caused, fans and Verstappen were unimpressed with the circuit. The Dutchman also talked about the opening ceremony that made them stand on podiums as they were introduced like the opening of The Hunger Games.
While talking about just how much he hated every minute of the weekend including the Elvis Presley-inspired race suits that probably made Verstappen want to run away, the driver finally spoke against the ones who blamed Carlos for the drain lid incident.
Max Verstappen told Viaplay that he thinks Toto Wolff would have spoken very differently if it was his car that was damaged by the drain cover
“I think he would have spoken differently if it was his car, but I expected nothing less from him.”
“Carlos also said that he didn’t… pic.twitter.com/90CjVLmA5H
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) November 18, 2023
Not too long back, Lewis Hamilton clapped back at Verstappen for calling Vegas a show, however, his team boss had other plans. When talking about the drain lid issue that arose, Verstappen defended Carlos yet again, saying,
“I think he would have spoken differently if it was his car, but I expected nothing less from him. Carlos also said that he didn’t feel anything in his legs for a few seconds. The accident could have been much worse.”
The Dutchman has spent this entire weekend being praised by the fans for how vocal he has been against the Vegas Circuit and the unfair treatment that Sainz received.
Fans hail Max Verstappen for vocalizing his dislike for the Las Vegas GP
Max Verstappen expressed his dislike for the Vegas weekend as soon as he took a step into the city. However, the issues that started coming up made the driver want to not drive for a “show” but because he enjoys driving.
After the FP1 incident that left Carlos Sainz distraught about the unfair penalty given to him for the race, many teams spoke against letting the team have a new engine believing it would be unfair for the rest of the teams. However, Verstappen was not having it, the driver soon spoke about it saying,
theres an actual video of max apologizing to charles 🥹🥹 pic.twitter.com/pV2rjgIbFT
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) November 19, 2023
“Teams should not be allowed to have a say in these kinds of things. For sure they are going to vote against that. I think it’s very hard on Carlos. In this political environment we are in, every team thinks about themselves.”
if there’s anything i love about vegas, its max. max who apologised to charles, max who said he deserved his penalty, max who was very vocal about carlos’ penalty, max who called out toto’s bs, max who’s not afraid to say his opinions about vegas gp.
tldr i love max verstappen
— ethy 💌🍉 (@55qsilver) November 19, 2023
The driver also apologized to Charles Leclerc after his race for running the Ferrari star off the tracks and was also vocal about the issues that the Las Vegas GP brought in for everyone. This impressed fans with how vocal the Dutchman had been the entire weekend and spoke on what the fans wanted.