Max Verstappen: “I apologized to Piastri, he’s the last person you want to cause a collision with”. Max Verstappen commented on the collision in Turn 1 with the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

The Dutchman’s comments after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Max Verstappen’s last race of the 2024 season was compromised after just a few meters. The four-time world champion risked making an inside move on Oscar Piastri after a good start, but the result was a collision that sent both cars into a spin.

Max Verstappen was penalized with a 10-second penalty, a decision with which the Red Bull driver disagreed, based on what he said over the radio during his pit stop.

Regarding the incident, Max took responsibility toward the other driver involved: “My start was good, I tried to take the inside, and then I realized that on the apex, Oscar and I would be very close. I tried to stay on the curb, but unfortunately, we touched tires and spun, which wasn’t great. I’ve already apologized to Oscar, he’s one of the last people you’d want to collide with, and it wasn’t nice. Then we had a difficult race, and we had problems with the tires, which were overheating. Unfortunately, we got stuck in that position and couldn’t get back into rhythm. The season was long, and today there wasn’t much to fight for. I was looking forward to the break, to disconnect, relax, and spend some time with friends and family. We have things to work on for next year, and we already have some good ideas, but we’ll see when we get in the car next year. It’s been a bumpy season, and McLaren has been very strong from Miami onwards. I want to thank the team for the season, which was long but kept us united and ultimately allowed us to win the Drivers’ Championship.”