Max Verstappen opens up on 'emotion of the sport' and what he 'fell in love with' amidst his criticism of the F1 Las Vegas GP

Max Verstappen has been quite critical of the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP. However, he has his reasons for it. The Red Bull star recently spoke about how he fell in love with the sport.

Speaking in the drivers' press conference after the qualifying session, Max Verstappen claimed that he fell in love with the passion and racing aspect of the sport rather than the show element. He said that, as a real racer, the show part of the sport should not really matter.

"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 and 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, as a real racer, that shouldn't really matter," said Verstappen.

Furthermore, he stated that an F1 car actually comes alive when it goes around a proper race track and not a street track. He cited examples of Spa, Monza, and others, pointing out how these locations capture the true emotion and passion of racing.

On this, Max Verstappen said:

"I mean, a car, first of all, a racing car, a Formula 1 anyway, on a street circuit, I think doesn't really come alive. It's not that exciting. I think it's more about just the proper racetracks. 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."

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Max Verstappen's verdict on 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP track after practice sessions

Even after the first two practice sessions, Max Verstappen was not too impressed by the Las Vegas GP track. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, he claimed that he has driven on better tracks than it and has not discovered anything new or exciting after actually driving on the Las Vegas track.

He said:

“No, no. I’ve had better tracks in my life. I mean, I already said that yesterday, there’s nothing new that I discovered or whatever. But yeah, we just get on with it.”

Max Verstappen qualified third in the qualifying session, but will start the race from second since Carlos Sainz suffered a grid penalty.