Max Verstappen has bemused an “unfortunate” brake issue which ended his winning streak at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix.
Verstappen arrived in Melbourne looking to equal his own record of ten Grand Prix victories and looked on course to achieve that feat, having claimed pole and led the opening lap.
A brake issue however rapidly reared its ugly head beginning with a mistake through Turns 7 and 8 on Lap 2 which cost him the lead to eventual winner – Carlos Sainz, before he eventually retired at the end of Lap 4 due to a fire breaking out in his right-rear brakes.
The result ended Verstappen’s 43-race scoring streak since his last race retirement which coincidentally came in Melbourne, Australia in 2022, with a Ferrari driver winning that race – albeit Charles Leclerc on that occasion.
Explaining exactly how his brake issues unfolded, Verstappen commented: “It is unfortunate about what happened today, but we can see so far in the data that as soon as the lights went off the right rear brake just stuck on and locked.
“It was basically like driving with the hand brake on so, of course, the temperature just kept on increasing and then I could see smoke appear as it had caught fire. This at the time was very confusing as the car was really weird to drive in some corners.
“At turn three, I braked and lost the rear end of the car; it felt weird on the rear axel, then on turn six and seven it snapped on me. The Team will investigate and we will see if there are any answers but there are some things you can’t control.”
Verstappen nevertheless felt that the car had behaved “really good in the laps to the grid,” so is “disappointed” that he couldn’t finish the race with belief that he “… had a good shot at winning and the car has been improving throughout the weekend.”
Team Principal, Christian Horner added that Verstappen’s retirement “was obviously really disappointing” to deal with, but believed that the brakes had been “locked on which obviously created an issue as it is effectively like having the handbrake on throughout the race.”
Horner also paid tribute to Sainz for his race-winning performance just a fortnight after he missed the Saudi Arabian GP due to appendicitis surgery.
“Huge respect for Carlos though, coming back from surgery and putting in a drive like that is remarkable. It was a great performance from him and Ferrari, they took their opportunity and got the result they deserved.”
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