Max Verstappen is still not fully healthy before the Australian GP

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Max Verstappen performed in Jeddah despite being ill. In the end, the Dutchman managed to finish the race as second. What may worry Red Bull fans is the fact that Max is still not fully healthy before the Australian GP. ‘I was not looking forward to [the break] but then I got really ill and have just been struggling a bit since that time, especially last race out, so I think for me now these three weeks are just about getting back to full fitness, getting a full programme in,’ -Verstappen said, as quoted by metro.co.uk ‘It felt like I was just missing a lung, and I got to the weekend [in Saudi Arabia] really believing that it was gone because normally when you get sick like two, three days after, you’re normally alright.

You know, you can just do your workouts – but then when I jumped into the car in FP1, even just one performance lap, I felt like I had to recover for two laps to be able to breathe normally.'

Max Verstappen and the next races

The Dutchman is extremely disappointed when he is not able to live up to his potential and when he feels limited in what he is able to do.

It appears that the situation has improved a little bit since then, and he may be ready for the races to come. We cannot predict whether Max will be able to give his best performance in Australia, but there is no doubt that he is a great fighter and that he is going to do everything he can to win.

‘It definitely did affect me throughout the weekend, which I didn’t like because it was one of the first races where I felt like I was physically limited, and that’s really frustrating when you’re out in the car but since then I’ve been trying to work on it, trying to improve it, and I do think that it has improved a lot, so… this weekend should be alright.

I think it was just all coming together and Jeddah is quite a tough track in general. When you don’t feel well it hits hard on you but these things unfortunately happen when you catch a virus and stuff. So hopefully for the rest of the year it should be okay.’