Max Verstappen has revealed that the right rear brake was “stuck” on his Red Bull Formula 1 car from the moment the race started in the 2024 Australian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman had started from pole position but was overtaken in the DRS zone on the run down to Turn 9 on the second lap amid complaints that his RB20 felt loose.
Smoke then began to billow from the rear of Verstappen’s car as he slowed and limped into the pits, parking in the Red Bull box as he retired with his brakes now on fire.
Verstappen has disclosed that he was combating the issue from the outset and that contributed to the moment that enabled Sainz to close and displace him on Lap 2.
“My right rear brake basically stuck on from when the lights went off,” he said. “So, yeah, the temperatures just kept on increasing and until the point of course, caught fire.
“Having one break calliper just stuck on. It’s like a handbrake.
“I had that moment [prior to Sainz’s overtake], of course after the first lap, but then already the temperature was increasing and increasing.
“So it just works like a handbrake. But of course, I didn’t know that stuff was happening. It just felt the problem in other balance in the car was off.”
Verstappen was heard making the remark “f**king stupid” over the team radio to his race engineer when Red Bull performed a pit stop while his car was stationed.
“Well, that was related to us doing a pitstop while, the cars on fire. I was like, why are we doing a pit stuff?” he answered when asked about that comment.
Verstappen had been seeking to match his previous record of 10 consecutive victories but instead recorded his first retirement since exiting the Australian GP in 2022.
Asked whether he was frustrated or disappointed, Verstappen replied: “Not so much to be honest. I mean, of course, I’m disappointed with, you know, not being able to finish the race because I think we would have had a good shot at winning because the balance felt quite nice on the laps to the grid.
“Like I felt confident and like a good improvement compared to what I felt in the long runs when we did in practice. But yeah, some things you can’t control.”
The three-time World Champion rebounded from his previous defeat in Singapore with a dominant showing in Japan, the next race on the F1 calendar in an earlier slot.
Verstappen admits the chance to bounce back in Suzuka “excites me, because I would like to win”, accepting that his next retirement was bound to come at some stage.
“Of course, we had a lot of good races in a row, a lot of basically good reliability,” he acknowledged.
“And I knew that the day would come that, you know, you end up having a retirement and unfortunately that day was today.
He added: “I think we just had already a very good run of two years, right. I mean, that’s already quite impressive.
“But of course, you never like to see it happen. But it’s more important now that we understand why it happened.”
