Verstappen on his blunder: ‘I’ve crashed before in the pit lane, but not in F1'

Verstappen brushed the wall when leaving the Red Bull pit garage following the red flag in Q1, damaging his front wing in the process.

It proved to be inconsequential as Verstappen safely made it into Q1 before claiming another F1 pole position.

It was a rare mistake for the Dutchman, who’s enjoying a record-breaking season for Red Bull, with the team remaining unbeaten so far in F1 2023.

Explaining what happened in Q1, Verstappen said: “On that final lap, um, of course I had my little incident in the pits where, where I destroyed my front wing.

“I had a bit of understeer out of the box, 'too much' rear grip. I had to take a new front wing, but that meant of course, that I was in the back to start that final run.”

Shortly after, Verstappen joked that he’s too “scared” to drive out of his pit garage now.

“To hit the wall in the pit lane? I think yeah, I’m scared to drive out of my box now! No, it has nothing to do with confidence. My engineer asked me what happened, I said I understeered. It happens. 

“So yeah, I don’t know. The last time that I hit a wall properly was here a couple of years ago, so… These things happen.

“A parking incident? [laughs] Uh, I’ve crashed once before in the pit lane, but not in F1!”