Newey recalls scary Red Bull scene after ‘horrible’ Verstappen incident

Adrian Newey has recalled the “horrific” Max Verstappen Silverstone 2021 incident as Red Bull feared he was “badly injured” in the immediate aftermath.

An epic 2021 title clash between Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has set the stage for one of the most exciting and dramatic seasons Formula 1 has ever produced, albeit one of the biggest moments of inflammation that season – which came at Silverstone – proved frightening. experience for Red Bull camp.

Max Verstappen was “just mumbling” on Red Bull team radio

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Hamilton and Verstappen collided at the top of the Copse, the contact sending Verstappen crashing into the barriers with a recorded 51G impact, the Dutchman taken to hospital for precautionary checks with Red Bull principal Christian Horner later stating that Verstappen had been ruled out for a short period. .

Meanwhile, Verstappen revealed – just over three years later – that he suffered vision problems at the 2021 US GP, which he linked to that Silverstone shunt.

And when it appears on High performance podcastformer Red Bull F1 design guru Newey has shed more light on Verstappen’s crash at Silverstone 2021 and the initial fear in the Red Bull camp.

Asked what those huge incidents are like for him, Newey said: “I mean, they’re horrible, they really are.

“I think Max’s at Silverstone was the last one where we thought, ‘Is this good? Is he seriously injured there?

“And then when he came on the radio, because he was so bad, he was just mumbling and you don’t know what that means.

“It was very painful. He had a pretty bad concussion. It was very rough for a week after, but it was fine.

“So accidents like this can and do still happen. The one at Spa in the Formula 2 race with Anthoine (Hubert), was terrible and will never be 100% safe.”

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In a season where tensions have run high between battling teams Mercedes and Red Bull, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone proved a major turning point, with Red Bull taking issue with what they saw as a lack of concern for Verstappen from Mercedes, the team celebrating. Hamilton’s recovery from the 10-second penalty to claim a crucial victory.

And with the benefit of hindsight, Mercedes would have done differently in the aftermath of Silverstone 2021.

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher, Mercedes communications director and team representative Bradley Lord said: “If we were to speak something, we regret it, I think we took the word of a member of the Red Bull team – and therefore slightly taken for granted – Max’s condition after his shunt at Silverstone in 2021.

“I think the way we were perceived to handle that fallout was a point where that relationship in that season soured pretty dramatically.

“We could have handled it in a different way that would have been more reflective of the concern we had for Max’s well-being at the time, regardless of our view of the incident and the rights and wrongs of it.

“There was that side of things and then, albeit unintentionally, we antagonized the relationship and the relationship with the fans in quite an extreme way as it happened.

“This is probably the time. If we could go back in time and change it, I think we would change our answers and what we did at that moment, that afternoon.”

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