Championship leader Max Verstappen says he is looking forward to the break in racing between the Australian Grand Prix and Baku after admitting his illness before Jeddah affected him more than he expected.
Verstappen missed Thursday media commitments in Saudi Arabia after Red Bull announced he had been battling a stomach bug. He returned to the paddock on Friday and completed the race weekend without incident.
Speaking ahead of the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, Verstappen admitted he has still not completely recovered from the effects of his illness and will use the long gap before the next race in Azerbaijan to recover.
“A couple of weeks ago I would say that I was not looking forward to [the break],” Verstappen said. “But then I got really ill and I’ve just been struggling a bit since that time, especially the last race.
“So for me now those three weeks is just getting back to like full fitness, getting a full programme in. So in a way it’s probably nice now.”
The large break in racing was caused by the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix due to ongoing logistical complications over Covid. Verstappen says that if he had not been sick, he would not have welcomed the gap in competition.
“Normally if you just feel well, I think I would also prefer to keep racing,” he said.
“It has nothing to do with looking into the car, trying to make it faster – I think that’s a natural process – but it’s a bit weird to have like three weeks off and especially that early on in the season.”
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After missing media day in Jeddah on Thursday, Verstappen dominated the early weekend in Saudi Arabia, topping all three practice sessions and Q1 before a driveshaft failure dropped him to 15th on the grid. In the race, the Red Bull driver recovered to finish on the podium in second behind team mate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen says he underestimated the impact his illness in the lead up to the race weekend in Saudi Arabia would have on his fitness in Jeddah.
“I refused to believe it myself for a long time, because at home I was really ill – I could barely just walk around,” he explained. “I felt like I was just missing a lung.
“I got to the weekend really believing that it was gone, because normally when when you get sick, like two or three days after, you’re normally alright, you can just do your workouts. But then when I jumped in the car in FP1, even just one performance lap I felt like I had…
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