Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey has backed Max Verstappen to bounce back after a difficult start to the 2018 season.
The Dutchman, once considered the future golden boy of Formula 1, has seen his aura diminish after a spate of incidents, including collisions with Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
Indeed, while the Australian currently sits third in the championship with two wins to his name, Verstappen only has a single podium and less than half the points after six races.
“He’s had one of those bad runs. He’s a great driver, he’s very quick and at some point, he’ll shed that (poor sequence) again and be on his way,” Newey was quoted by Reuters ahead of the Canadian GP.
“Part of being a racing driver is learning from your mistakes and I think he’s bright enough to do that.”
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It is exactly not doing that though that many have been critical of Verstappen for, although his last setback in Monaco, crashing in final practice and missing qualifying, did seem to cause a response as a more conservative race approach saw him move from 20th to finish ninth.
And despite appearing to remain defiant that his approach works for him, F1’s most revered designer does think pundits and fellow drivers offering their various opinions has had an effect.
“We’re all human,” Newey stated. “He can try and shrug off everybody else’s comments and opinions but when you’ve had a run like that, you question yourself a bit. Of course you do.
“But I think he’s tough enough that he’ll come through that.”
