Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Albert Park, 2022

Verstappen avoiding excessive off-track duties which ‘hurt your performance’

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Max Verstappen says he will continue to keep his off-track commitments to a minimum as Covid-19 restrictions relax in order to prioritise his race performances.

In brief

Off-track duties can “hurt your performance” – Verstappen

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Verstappen says he intends to keep his focus on the track despite the increased attention he has received following his world championship win.

The Red Bull driver says he doesn’t plan to take on more off-track commitments “because I’m there to race, I’m not there to entertain the crowds.”

“I’ll entertain them by doing that on the track,” he told Reuters. “Otherwise you get upset, you don’t feel good and it’s going to hurt your performance.”

Traction still key around revised Albert Park layout – Ferrari

Ferrari’s head of vehicle concept, David Sanchez, says that the revised Albert Park circuit still retains its “underlying nature” despite the much quicker layout.

Many corners around the Melbourne circuit have been modified to make them more open with the overall lap speed much faster than previous occasions.

“The Albert Park track is fairly close to what we call an average downforce track in terms of aero efficiency,” said Sanchez. “It has a blend of low and high-speed corners with some relatively long straights. It is also a track where having good traction is critical.

“Although the layout is faster the underlying nature of the track remains the same. It is still a track which rewards good aero efficiency and traction. This allows us to look back into the data from the last few times we raced there with a critical eye to ensure we consider all the key elements as we tackle free practice. We also spent a large amount of time running the new car in the simulator, so when it hits the ground in FP1 in Albert Park the car should hopefully feel pretty good from the drivers’ perspective.”

New Gran Turismo 7 update transforms controversial in-game economy

A new patch for Gran Turismo 7 has transformed the controversial in-game economy and allows users all new opportunities to earn millions of credits by playing.

After player outrage over the game’s limited reward system, the new v1.11 patch has rebalanced rewards for races and introduced multiple new events that offer much higher pay-outs than previously.

Drivers are now also rewarded for completing the Circuit Experience challenges, earning a possible reward of around 47,000,000 credits for achieving a gold ranking for every circuit.

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

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Comment of the day

With growing concerns about the rising freight costs in Formula 1, @Olpeculier has a novel story about a peculiar item that clocked up many frequent flier miles over the course of a season at McLaren…

Several years ago I knew the father of the person who was in charge of McLaren’s catering (she ran the business alongside Ron Dennis I believe).

I was told a story that they had to cater for pretty much anything somebody asked for, so for every single race, a four-pack of baked beans was put in the hold together with all the more interesting choices.

Nobody ever asked for beans on toast.

They were probably the most travelled Heinz products in the world, much to the disgust of the logistics department!
@Olpeculier

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Craig Woollard!

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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7 comments on “Verstappen avoiding excessive off-track duties which ‘hurt your performance’”

  1. Profile Photo

    Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
    8th April 2022, 1:09

    I was enjoying GT7! Guess I’m going back to clash of clans. Love only online games with microtransactions.

  2. Profile Photo

    ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
    8th April 2022, 3:38

    The footage of the areoscreen in action is pretty impressive. Make sure to turn up the volume if you watch it.

  3. Profile Photo

    Tristan (@skipgamer)
    8th April 2022, 6:28

    F1 and Twitter have announced they are expanding their content partnership to further amplify the sport’s digital coverage.

    Sooo, directly buy “amplified” exposure on twitter, then use twitter stats to sell how well F1 is doing… I remember those stats in the off season how twitter follows was being used to compare with other “sports.”

    There’s something so rotten about social media. As a proudly independant publication it’s antithetic how heavily it is promoted here.

    1. jff
      8th April 2022, 7:14

      I’m still surprised that the blurbs from Twitter and ‘see me’ images from Instagram are more prominent in the round-up than the links to stories by actual journalists (of differing qualities).

      In the end this publication would do well to heed the words of the World Champion: “because I’m there to (do the job), I’m not there to entertain the crowds.”

  4. Profile Photo

    frood19 (@frood19)
    8th April 2022, 6:51

    @keithcollantine I enjoyed reading the Malaysia 2007 report (as well as the comments section – some rather prescient readers back then). I do wonder how that race would have been “improved” by multiple DRS zones…

  5. Profile Photo

    Broke1984 (@broke1984)
    8th April 2022, 8:15

    Where is the Audi article?

  6. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    8th April 2022, 8:40

    The full-sized lego car is cool & I also like how detailed the steering wheel is, so props to whoever made this thing.

    I like Hulkenberg’s LinkedIn story, & I’m surprised that a neighbor informed him of Seb’s infection before anyone else.

    An interesting COTD.

Comments are closed.