Max Verstappen says he and his Red Bull team kept a problem with blurred vision secret during his maiden Formula 1 title run in 2021.
The now three-time world champion prompted some intrigue last week when an interview that appeared in Red Bull’s in-house magazine, the Red Bulletin, revealed difficulties he experienced after his huge crash at the 2021 British Grand Prix.
As part of a feature on his greatest wins, Verstappen revealed how much trouble he had faced competing at that year’s United States Grand Prix.
"Since my Silverstone crash, I've been struggling with visibility problems, especially on undulating courses or those with lots of advertising boards along the side of the track,” he said.
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“In this race, I wasn't just battling against Lewis, but also against blurry images.
"It was like driving a speedboat at 300 km/h! I've never told you this before, but for a few laps it was so bad that I seriously considered turning the car off. The only thing that helped was concentrating on my breathing while Lewis was breathing down my neck.”
The quotes appeared briefly online before being removed, prompting questions over the reality of Verstappen's situation.
But asked ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix to clarify if the comments had been an accurate reflection of what he had experienced, Verstappen explained: “Yeah, it was just in ‘21. After that, it went away. But it did occur back then.”
He added: “It's not something that I would advise for people to have while driving. But we are racing drivers, you deal with all sorts of stuff.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B is loaded onto a truck after his crash
Photo by: Sutton Images
“Everyone is walking around here, but always here and there people have like little injuries or whatever. I mean, those things happen.”
Amid the closeness of the title fight that year, Verstappen said that only his inner circle knew about what was happening – and eventually they worked on a remedy to get rid of the issue.
Asked who he had spoken to about it at the time, he said: “People around the team and a specialist.”
He added: “[But] it got cured, luckily. I don't want to go into detail. No one needs to know.”
