Verstappen explains his Red Bull F1 car's Abu Dhabi power struggles

Max Verstappen struggles in the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stemmed from the throttle response of his Red Bull Formula 1 car "not doing what he wanted"

Following his sole pitstop, Verstappen complained of multiple issues throughout the subsequent laps, suggesting he had a "handbrake effect" on the exit of the corners.

Verstappen was eventually told he would have to "live with it" as Red Bull was unable to remotely fix the problem.

He later explained that there were issues with delays when getting on the throttle, a problem that has cropped up on other occasions throughout 2019.

"Torque holes and throttle," Verstappen said were the main problem areas he was encountering. "There was some delays and stuff so it was not great. And we couldn't fix it.

"So we drove around the problem, but at the end of the day it wouldn't have made a difference to the result.

"When I go on throttle, it's not doing what I want. It did cost me laptime but like I said, it wouldn't have given me the win today.

"The race was alright, just a bit of a shame, of course, about the first lap but then I think we had a good first stint, we were long.

"Once we then put the hard tyres on the pace was decent, I could get by Charles [Leclerc] and I could just do my own race.

"Lewis [Hamilton] was too quick, so I was just focusing on my race and laptimes."

When asked by Autosport whether the team had diagnosed his issue, Verstappen explained that Red Bull had not explicitly told him what the cause of the problem was.

"Most of the time it's fine for me," he said. "Today, I'm not sure yet what happened exactly because they didn't want to tell me on the radio.

"They just said that there was nothing they could do from their side, so it also doesn't matter what it is. I'll have to find out."