Max Verstappen promised not to let his fans down #iamtheGOAT here …
Max Verstappen went on a monologue at the end of the press conference after qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, in which he told the FOM and Liberty Media why he once fell in love with Formula 1. Max would love to have new fans fall in love with ‘his’ F1, not with the show element around it. The transcript of his speech is typed out here:
“I can go on for a long time, but I feel like of course a kind of show element is important, but I like emotion,” Verstappen said after qualifying when asked for his overall assessment of the Las Vegas weekend so far.
“For me, when I was a little kid it was about the emotion of the sport, what I fell in love with and not the show of the sport around it because I think as a real racer, that shouldn’t really matter.
“First of all a racing car, a Formula 1 car anyway on a street circuit, I think doesn’t really come alive. It’s not that exciting.
“I think it’s more about just proper racetracks. You know, when you go to Spa, Monza, these kind of places, they have a lot of emotion and passion.
“And for me, seeing the fans there is incredible and for us as well, when I jump in the car there, I’m fired up and I love driving around these kinds of places.
“Of course, I understand that fans need maybe something to do as well around the track, but I think it’s more important that you actually make them understand what we do a sport because most of them just come to have a party, drink, see a DJ play or a performance act.
“I can do that all over the world. I can go to Ibiza and get completely sh*tfaced and have a good time.
“But that’s what happens and actually people, they come, and they become a fan of what? They want to see maybe their favourite artist and have a few drinks with their mates and then go out and have a crazy night out.
“But they don’t actually understand what we are doing and what we are putting on the line to perform.
“And I think if you would actually invest more time into the actual sport, what we’re actually trying to achieve here, too, as a little kid, we grew up wanting to be a World Champion.
“If I think the sport would put more focus on to these kinds of things and also explain more what the team is doing throughout the season, what they are achieving, what they’re working for, these kinds of things I find way more important to look at than just having all these random shows all over the place.
“For me, it’s not what I’m very passionate about, and I like passion and emotion with these kinds of places.
“I love Vegas, but not to drive an F1 car. I love to go out, have a few drinks, throw everything on red or whatever, to be a bit crazy and have nice food.
“But like I said, emotion, passion, it’s not there compared to some old school tracks.”
