Max Verstappen has explained how defeat in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April propelled him onto his record-breaking win streak in Formula 1. Verstappen has won 12 of the 14 races in 2023, only failing to claim victory in rounds two and four of the season in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan with Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez winning both times. Since finishing second in Baku on April 30th, Verstappen has won 10 straight races, with victory at Monza eclipsing the previous record of nine he jointly held with Sebastian Vettel's 2013 season. In Saudi, a driveshaft failure in Q2 left Verstappen stranded down the grid and could only recover to second while an unfortunate timing of the Safety Car in Baku allowed Perez to leapfrog the Dutchman who had been leading. In the ultimately fruitless chase of Perez in Baku, Verstappen explained how he experimented with the RB19, and learnt useful lessons.
Verstappen's Baku lesson
"I learned a lot from the race in Baku over how to do some things with the car and how to set it up," Verstappen explained to media including RacingNews365. "Of course, I didn't win that race in Baku, but actually I really tried a lot of stuff and different tools in the car. "That's why throughout the race it was a little bit inconsistent, but at one point, I got into a good rhythm with what I found. "But then I damaged my tyres a bit too much, but it was like: 'Okay, that is quite interesting for the next races.' "Basically I then implemented that and it has helped me on every track [since.]"
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