Jos Verstappen has spoken about the current situation at McLaren, following their disqualification from the American Grand Prix in Las Vegas due to excessive wear on the MCL39s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Papaya’s penalty resulted in Max Verstappen being tied with Piastri for second place in the drivers’ standings and 24 points behind leader Norris, following his victory in “Sin City”.
Giving his opinion on the incident, Jos Verstappen openly questioned McLaren’s philosophy. “This is a big mistake on their part, a huge mistake, yes. Why push the limits so much?” he wondered, according to crash.net. The Dutchman did not rule out the possibility that the risk was necessary: ”Maybe it really was a mistake, but maybe the car just works less well in different conditions and they had to do that.” He even revealed that Max was aware of the possibility of disqualification shortly after the end of the race.
With Max Verstappen now within one race win of Norris, Yos believes McLaren has no room for further mistakes and may have to clearly back Norris in the title race. At the same time, Max’s father expressed doubts about the behavior of the British team’s two cars: “You can clearly see a difference between the two McLarens on the track, in the way they take the corners. One is slipping, the other is not, and that raises questions,” he stressed.
“The pressure on McLaren is now huge and they will feel it,” added Yos. “It still stands that if Max wins the remaining races and Norris finishes second every time, then Norris becomes world champion. But Oscar Piastri is still there, and he won’t be too happy at the moment either. Max has nothing to lose and can give it his all. And he will,” he warned.
