Max Verstappen has no worries about the engine issue which left him unable to post a time in Italian Grand Prix qualifying.
The Red Bull driver was already starting at the back having taken on the new Spec 4 unit from Honda, however, early during an attempted flying lap in Q1, he would lose power rounding the Curva Grande.
Speaking after the session though, Verstappen doesn’t think there will be any repercussions in the race.
“I basically lost power, so I had to abort,” he said via Formula1.com.
“It was not the same issue that we had at Spa, but it’s clearly of course not great. It shouldn’t happen in the race as it’s different power modes that you are using, so I’m quite confident that tomorrow it will all be fine.”.
Honda’s F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe later revealed the Max had triggered a safe mode.
“Max was unable to set a time in Q1 after he got excessive wheelspin going over a kerb with a resultant rise in engine revs, causing a Honda protection mode and then an FIA system cut in and reduce power,” he explained.
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With Red Bull having gone for a very low downforce setup on the cars, the race pace of the RB15 is expected to be particularly strong.
However, while Verstappen has his ideal recovery laid out, he hopes the return of some rain to Monza could help him further.
“For sure, we’ll try to go forward; a lot of cars are quite competitive around here, so catching up is not that easy compared to some other tracks when the gaps are bigger, but I still have a target to get into the top five,” he said
“In the dry, it will be tough [to get a podium] because in the first few laps they [the leaders] will pull away massively and on a track where there is not many corners you don’t really gain a lot of lap time per lap.
“In the wet, the differences will be bigger and then you can really come to the front so I definitely hope it’s wet tomorrow.”
At recent races, including last weekend at Spa, a weakness has come at the start but Verstappen does think progress has been made.
“I had a few starts this morning and they felt good. I think there is room to improve, you never have a perfect start,” he noted.
“It was pretty decent, but of course starting from the back it’s not really highlighted.”